


Calling Out Across the Line

by TinyandFierce



Series: One Way Or Another (I'm Gonna Find You) [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Any Staron is minor in this story, BAMF Darcy Lewis, Canon Rewrite, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, F/M, Fix-It, Iron Man 3, MCU canon does not spark joy, Multi, Post-Thor: The Dark World, Therefore I am throwing Canon out the window
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:22:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 41,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25321588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyandFierce/pseuds/TinyandFierce
Summary: Things have been quiet for a while, so of course Darcy isn’t surprised when things go from zero to sixty instantly.Between Jane being possessed by an infinity stone and Tony playing chicken with terrorists Darcy is going to need to get the whole team together to get through everything. She also knows that time is running out and soon she will come face to face with the Winter Soldier.Darcy doesn’t care what version of Bucky she gets, she will drag him back from the dark side kicking and screaming if she has to.Lets just hope this alien fight is easier then the last one Darcy got into.
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Original Female Character(s), Clint Barton/Laura Barton/Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis, Jane Foster/Thor, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Sharon Carter
Series: One Way Or Another (I'm Gonna Find You) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1783546
Comments: 82
Kudos: 265





	1. So Tell Me When It Kicks In

**Author's Note:**

> Here we are! Part 3 of the series! Can't wait to get through the first two movies and finally get to what you all are waiting for, The Winter Soldier!
> 
> First half is all Thor 2 and Iron Man 3 so buckle in because we got a long way to go, lot of stuff to get through.
> 
> To all my subscribers, reviewers, readers and kudos-givers new and old, thank you again. 
> 
> I love that you are all into this series so much and I can't wait to write more for you all.
> 
> Title of the fic and all chapter title come from the song Bloodstream by Ed Sheeran

_“All human plans are subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe.” – Arthur C. Clarke_

Everyone talks about how important their 21st and 22nd birthdays are, they always recount fond memories of too much alcohol and cramming into college parties and overcrowded bars. When Darcy Lewis was 19, she could say she thought she would experience the same thing, laughing with her friends at midnight on campus, feeling like the king of the world.

That is not what happened.

Instead Darcy Lewis was sent to the future when she was 20 years old and gained a life mission to make sure earth’s mightiest heroes, the Avengers, lived past the next decade. She spent her 21st birthday drunk, but it was in a Manhattan lab and it was $200 champagne courtesy of Pepper, while she laughed herself silly at Thor recounting birthday battles of old.

By her 22nd birthday Darcy had long ago packed up her college dorm and said goodbye to the Culver campus. She moved into Stark Tower and eventually followed her Uncle and future Aunt back to Malibu, where she spent her time helping Tony Stark through equations, future plans and therapy. She was there to help Pepper with press and hold her hand when Tony went under for his heart surgery. She called her sister Maggie and lamented on ridiculous things Tony and Jane would do in their never-ending contest to one up each other, she would spend hours poring over notes to make sure events went out as they planned and spent many a sleepless night sometimes agonizing on getting something wrong.

Pepper and Tony did throw her a party when April 1st rolled around, they even flew out her mom so she could be there, but a week later when the last of the leftover cake had been eaten and even the late birthday messages stopped rolling in Darcy didn’t feel any different than when she was 21.

The truth was Darcy had to grow up and be an adult the second she jumped out of the flaming helicopter with Jane and ran through the halls of the Hellcarrier from the Hulk. She’s not sad about it though, she’d rather be here than anywhere else and it’s easier to learn now that everything comes with a price.

If that price happens to be Darcy’s childhood carefree innocence then that’s fine, she’s got enough sarcasm to fill up the rest of the space.

But no matter what anyone says she still does not see her body’s internal clock scheduled to wake up at the crack of dawn as a good thing.

Darcy groans as she rolls over in her bed and squints at the window she had left open last night, she would like to speak to whoever was in charge of the weather, because California was always supposed to be sunny and warm. At least that’s what she thought, but the early April frosty morning air now currently making its way into her bedroom would beg to differ. Darcy tries to pull the blankets tighter to her and drift off back to dreamland but it was no use, when Darcy woke up, she was up for the day. She groans once more in defeat and throws the covers off. She bitterly slams the window shut and wonders what past her was thinking, leaving that thing open last night.

No matter how many times both Clint and Natasha want to list to her the benefits of becoming an early riser she will still say that 6am is an ungodly hour to greet the day. She goes through her morning routine that she has managed to develop over the past few months and nothing out of the ordinary happens until around 8am, when her phone starts to ring with a call from her mother.

Which isn’t normally abnormal but Malibu is 3 hours ahead of Pennsylvania which means her mother is up at the just as ungodly hour of 5am.

“Why are you up this early?” Darcy asks her mother the second she picks up the phone and in response she hears her mother let out a quiet chuckle.

“You really haven’t been on the Lewis schedule lately have you? I have to get up this early most days to open the bakery.” Holly answers and honestly, a lot of blurry early mornings in high school make more sense now. Darcy thought they were getting burgled at one point but was too tired to care at the time.

“I’ll never understand early risers, even those with early rising jobs, What’s up?” Darcy asks as she pours herself a cup of coffee and proceeds to fill another one for Tony who has most likely been up for hours.

“Just wanted to call to see how you were doing.”

“Pretty good, Jane left for England a few weeks ago, I mean technically we should have another year but according to her gadgets there were readings off the charts.” Darcy explains while tucking the phone in between her ear and shoulder, two mugs in her hands.

“Please keep me updated on that at least, I would like to know when my wayward daughter goes to other countries or worlds.” Holly half teases, half worries.

“You can’t see right now but I’m giving you a salute.” Darcy jokes as the elevator opens up for her and she winks at the ceiling in thanks to Jarvis.

“Also…” Holly hesitates for a second. “I mean you saw this coming but with everything going on, in and around the family I just wanted to make sure you knew.”

“What? Are you and Bruce eloping in Vegas?” Darcy jokes, it’s well known the two haven’t even gone out yet.

“Well no, but I am going to ask him out on a date.”

Darcy blinks in surprise and rushes to put the coffee cups on the elevator floor before grabbing her cellphone.”

“Seriously! Oh finally! You guys move so slow! It’s been almost two years mom.”

“The first six months we were all worried Bruce was going to go on a guilt trip and just leave in the middle of the night! So nobody can blame me for taking my time.” Holly quickly defends herself and Bruce, but Darcy can tell even if she can’t see it, her mother is totally blushing.

“Fine fine, point to you. But seriously I’m happy for you, both of you, and honestly mom if you think about it you and Bruce can’t be worse than the 08 breakup of Maggie and Heather.” Darcy says and both woman shudder at the memory of that disaster.

“You know.” Holly says already deep in thought. “I don’t ever worry about Nicholas, despite everything, he and Hannah are a sure thing and I never worried about your dating life.”

Darcy has to bite her lip to not give away the fact that she might still marry a WWII super soldier who may or may not have been brainwashed into shooting JFK.

_Oh, if only you knew_ Darcy thought as she practically swallows her giggles.

“But Maggie… her taste in woman has always been...” Holly stops as she searches for the right word.

“She likes em flighty and pretty?” Darcy smirks as she answers.

“I was going to say bohemian and free spirited.” Holly tries.

“Manic Pixie Dream Girls, got it.” Darcy teases again and laughs when her mother huffs at her in mock frustration.

“Look, let’s just cross our fingers that Maggie meets a girl version of Bruce and everything will then be sunshine and rainbows.” Darcy throws in one last quip as she tucks the phone back into her shoulder and grabs the two coffee’s up off the elevator floor.

“I think your sister’s taste and mine differ so I’ll settle for a nice girl.” Now Holly was teasing Maggie too and the girl wasn’t even around to defend herself.

The elevator doors open to the basement lab and Darcy says her goodbyes to her mother so she can balance the two coffee’s and type in the key code to get into the lab. Through the glass walls she sees Tony and surprisingly Pepper, debating something over by one of the whiteboards. The door beeps and Jarvis announces her presence, causing both Tony and Pepper to turn around.

“Hey, I got you a refill Tony, if I knew you were down here, I would have grabbed you some coffee too Pepper.” Darcy says as she crosses the lab and hands Tony one of the mugs. Darcy tucks her phone away and takes a big sip from her own mug, luxuriating in the taste of it. It actually takes her a minute to realize that no one responded to her greeting and the lab is oddly silent. She opens her eyes from her coffee indulgent moment to see Tony and Pepper looking at her almost nervously.

“What? What happened?” Darcy asks and takes a step closer to see what the two were looking at only to find they were pouring over her future notes.

“Why are these out?” Darcy asks now feeling fear start to gather in her stomach as Tony and Pepper exchange a look.

“The anomaly, the aether that Jane finds, you said she finds it in London around 2013, right?” Pepper asks and Darcy nods her head.

“It lines up with Extremis?” Tony asks next and Darcy turns to him and also nods, too nervous to speak.

“Then something is definitely wrong because it is 2012 and yet Killian scheduled a meeting with me to talk about Extremis this week.” Pepper says and Darcy can hear the slight fear in Pepper’s voice but she can’t think about that right now because she is officially panicking.

“That’s not…. what?” Darcy blurts out and dives for her notes to read over her timeline, she’s read it a million times and knows it by heart so she’s still confused when the number stays at 2013.

“I double checked. It’s definitely Aldrich Killian and we know what he wants to talk about.” Pepper explains. Darcy looks up from her notes and stares at the wall as she thinks, the dread grows.

“Jane went to London because the anomaly was growing but that couldn’t be happening yet…but it is.” Darcy looks at Tony and he looks so serious. He stands up from the chair he had been sitting in and slides over a computer screen.

“Jarvis, playback.” Is all he says. Darcy watches as the screen goes dark and then suddenly the ten rings symbol is flashing on the screen followed closely by the hoax Mandarin and his fake propaganda video.

“Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher.” The narrations begins and Darcy can do nothing but stare.

“One thing I’ll give the guy is I can see myself absolutely believing this, it looks real.” Tony mummers which snaps Darcy out of her trance. She takes a huge unsteady breath and starts to pace the lab while the screams and gunfire go off in the video.

“How is this happening right now it makes no sense!” Darcy turns to Tony but before she can ask, he’s shaking his head.

“I was keeping track of Extremis trail and things are popping up, Maya is back in the area and Happy already reported suspicious activity from Killian’s baldheaded right-hand man.” Tony points behind him. “This dropped last night and Pepper’s meeting is this week. Whatever is supposed to happen, it’s happening now.”

Darcy gulps and nods her head.

“Okay, okay okay okay.” She repeats as she tries to organize her thoughts. “I’ll call Clint, you guys wake up Jane if she’s asleep.” Darcy starts to head to the door, planning on bringing down the entire pot of coffee.

“What about Banner?” Tony asks. Darcy considers getting him in on this for a second, just spilling the secret and getting his help with the aether but she knows it’s too soon for a plethora of reasons.

“Just leave him alone for now, if the world really is fucked I would actually like my mom and him to have one date before it all goes to shit.” Darcy says as she pushes out of the lab and takes the stairs two at a time.

***

“So it’s all happening the same but faster?” Clint manages to simplifies the problem in one sentence. Six hours later, all of them are perched throughout the lab with Jane listening in on video call.

“Yes, but that shouldn’t be possible because we didn’t do anything too different yet, we made sure of that. The power stone wouldn’t know anything about us so it shouldn’t be rushing to come out right now and Extremis has nothing at all to do with my time travel so I don’t know why Aldrich Killian – dumbest fucking name ever – is speeding up his progress, nothing is adding up here.” Darcy throws her hands up and then slumps down into a chair, no matter how much coffee she drank she still feels completely exhausted.

“It’s almost like someone is trying to trip us up.” Jane chimes in as she looks at her own notes. Clint nods in agreement as he watches the terrorist video again.

“It would make sense, push events forward so we got no choice but to revert to what we did last time…” Clint pauses and his face scrunches up. “The other time?” He looks towards Darcy and she just shrugs.

“Don’t think too hard about wording, time travel fucks with your brain.” Darcy tells him.

“That doesn’t make sense though, Loki doesn’t know, you only warned Thor about the nine realms or whatever, fighting so he could stop that before it starts. Fury keeps secrets locked up tighter then Fort Fucking Knox. No one on or off this planet knows what we’re doing.” Tony says, looking at their notes on the dry erase board as if it were a math equation.

Darcy rolls that thought around in her head, thinking of anyone who could somehow notice microscopic changes happening through time. Her eyes open wide and Jane spits out her coffee as they both yell at the same time.

“Dr. Strange!”

“Dr. What now?” Tony asks as he looks between the screen and Darcy.

“The time wizard guy, Future Pepper had to explain it to me like three different times but he’s definitely in the notes. He’s a time guardian, or something and he’s in charge of keeping the timeline in order… yeah, that’s it.” Darcy says as she searches through her notes and finds the ones about the time wizard.

“I remember this because it was fascinating, I couldn’t find much on legends or anything with the time wizards involved. It’s a pretty well-kept secret but I studied what Darcy has and it makes sense, their job is to keep the timeline moving as it’s supposed to, to protect time, and to do that they see all possible timelines that could happen.” Jane goes into professor mode and lectures them from her screen.

“So, when I traveled and came back, I started making changes, he saw that and is trying to get everything back on track.” Darcy continues for Jane.

“Why doesn’t he just find us and tell us to stop? Why all the magic tricks?” Clint asks. Darcy holds up a finger and shuffles through the notes before she waves the one, she was looking for in the air.

“Because when he confronts us, we convince him that this is better, he’s trying to not break the rules! He’s stalling!” Darcy says triumphantly as if Dr. Strange were here right now for her to call out his bullshit.

“I hate this guy.” Tony says half-jokingly.

“So, what do we do?” Pepper asks and Darcy doesn’t have an answer so she starts to pace the lab again. Right now, she wants to give Stephen Strange a knock to the head but he’s not here right now and they’re running out of time.

“We’re gonna need more people.” Clint finally says and everyone turns to him.

“We thought we would have more time, Stark doesn’t have enough info, he still needs to go to Tennessee and catch the motherfucking Extremis assholes so the town doesn’t get destroyed. It means Stark is going to need backup and I’m going to need more backup for Pepper while around Killidick. “Clint finishes. Tony points at him.

“Birdbrain’s got a point.”

“Thanks, that happens sometimes.” Clint jokes and despite the dire situation it does make Darcy snorts.

“We could call Sharon; she already knows and I’m pretty sure she could whip something up to convince Steve this is all a SHIELD sanctified mission or whatever.” Tony says and Darcy nods in agreement.

“That could work, we could also send Natasha and Bruce to London to help with the damage and crowd control when alien invasion part 2 comes down.” Darcy suggests and Jane is nodding rapidly, obviously wanting as much help as they can get in London.

“So, we’re doing this?” Tony asks looking serious. Darcy watches as his gaze flits to Pepper and she knows why he’s worried, she’s worried about Pepper too.

“I mean, what other choice do we have, it’s just a little bit faster.” Darcy jokes.

“Yeah, cause speeding through a test never got anyone a wrong answer.” Tony was actually grumbling about all this.

“When I meet this wizard guy, I’m punching him, I had heart surgery six months ago. I don’t need this stress.”

“Being yourself creates stress.” Pepper jokes before turning to Darcy. “Do you want me to call the jet for you?”

Darcy has no idea why Pepper would do that.

“Darcy you need to go to London now, if Extremus is happening then the Aether will wake up soon.” Clint says and Darcy realizes they are right but a minute later she is groaning.

“I just promised my mother I would call her if I was leaving the country and or planet and now, I am going to possibly be doing both.” She face palms for a second and takes a calming breath before looking around the room.

“Okay, yes please call the jet since I don’t want to know what it’s like getting a last-minute ticket to London. The rest of you, keep Pepper safe and also please don’t disturb Bruce until you absolutely have to. It took my mom and him almost two years to get to this point, let’s not make it so they decide to just call the whole thing off.”

“Good point, we now have operation Time Hop and operation get Bruce laid.” Tony says with a smirk on his face when Darcy blanches.

“I. Did not. Want those images in my head. You are the worst.” Darcy slowly gets the words out through her cringing but Tony just laughs at her.

***

It feels a little like déjà vu with Pepper dropping her off at the airport once again after a big-time travel meeting. This time Darcy can at least say she’s way less nervous than last time, even if she may be potentially fully launching herself into a Norse god fight.

“Everything will be fine.” Pepper says and Darcy turns to give the cool and calm Pepper Potts a significant look.

“Shouldn’t I be the one comforting you? You could be potentially shot up with Extremis.”

“If all goes to plan I won’t.”

“What if all doesn’t go to plan?”

Of all things, Pepper smiles at her and takes her hand.

“Honestly, because I trust you all, you and Tony and Clint will take care of me.” Pepper squeezes her hand. “You brought us all together Darcy, and I don’t know where I was when this happened in the other timeline but what I do know is that this time I’m not alone.”

Darcy could do nothing more than hug the living shit out of Pepper.

“Also, I’d like to give Killian a punch in the face on behalf of other me.”

Darcy lets out a laugh as she draws out of the hug and grabs her bag from the ground.

“I’m pretty sure Clint and Tony will let you shoot your shot on that one.” Darcy winks and Pepper waves goodbye to her as Darcy walks out towards the jet. Darcy gets settled into her seat before taking out her phone to shoot one more text before takeoff.

**To Jane: You better be sleeping right now because I am hours away from forcing you to practice self-care again.**

Before Darcy can turn her phone on airplane mode it chimes with a text because of course Jane wouldn’t be sleeping when she had to even, though she swore she would. Jane had texted back a smiley face and a clapping hands emoji.

Sometimes Darcy really regrets teaching both Jane and Thor about emojis.

***

She gets off the plane jetlagged and sleeping on her feet when a lanky and very awake body stands in front of her. She takes a step back and reaches for her taser but the man just gives her a smile and holds out his hand.

“Agent Ian Boothby at your service Ms. Lewis.”

Darcy blinks a few times as she looks at the tall sandy haired man before the name clicks and she nearly bursts out laughing. She had seen pictures of the London event and had seen pictures of Ian Boothby and he may have always been an agent but that doesn’t change the fact that he is a beanpole with a nervous smile.

“Cool, why is a SHIELD agent here.” Darcy says, taking his hand and letting him shake it. A moment later he was letting go of her hand and picking up her bag, well at least he was a gentleman.

“Orders directly from Agent Hill, said you needed someone who could hack you into any place you needed to go.” She watches Ian puff out his chest a little in pride. “I’m the second-best hacker SHIELD has right now.”

That felt like a lie but whatever.

“Where’s the first?” Darcy asks as a joke but gets slightly suspicious when Ian looks away too quickly to be natural.

“He’s um busy.” He practically mutters.

“Okay…that’s not suspicious at all but I’m jetlagged as fuck and have the Avengers on speed dial so you do you man.” Darcy says as they finally arrive in the car and she climbs into the passenger seat.

“Okay, I’m gonna need a power nap before I deal with a woman who doesn’t know how to take a break.” Darcy says once they’re on the road, only to be given Ian’s nervous smile again.

“Actually Dr. Foster is sleeping right now and I managed to get her to eat a sandwich before she fell asleep.”

“Huh. Okay scored some points there.”

Ian looks downright proud of himself for his accomplishments and Darcy wonders how this guy every managed to trick her in the other timeline.

***

Darcy is convinced that the universe is against her getting a normal sleep schedule because she does not get that power nap, oh no. When they finally pull up in front of Jane’s mother’s place, Jane is already running out the door and sprinting to the car.

“Agent Smiles over here said you were asleep.” Darcy practically whined, she really wanted her nap. But Jane seems determined as she tries to rush Darcy out of the car.

“Jane! What is your deal?!” Darcy finally yells, yanking herself out of Jane’s grip.

“Tony is on TV right now threatening the Mandarin.”

Darcy blinks and swears her brain is rebooting a second before it hits her.

“What the fuck happened?”


	2. Don't Leave Me Lonely Now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, about to get into Thor: Dark World and I hope to add Darcy to a bit more of it then in movie canon so stay tune for that.
> 
> Also Ian is not a Hydra Agent, he is just his bumbling self but a SHIELD agent. I figured in this canon Darcy and Jane wouldn't just trust a random intern with all this future info flying around, so I decided to make Ian a SHIELD agent to set up something that will be a bigger plot point later.
> 
> Anyway, read on!

“ _See every difficulty as a challenge, a stepping stone, and never be defeated by anything or anyone.”_ – _Eileen Caddy_

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, WE HAD A PLAN! A PLAN THAT DID NOT INCLUDE BLOWING UP YOUR HOUSE!”

“You think you’re upset imagine how I feel.”

“OH MY GOD!”

There was a shuffling heard over Darcy’s cellphone so she decided to stop her tirade for a second until someone responded.

“Darcy?”

Darcy finally let out a calming sigh as the harried voice of Pepper was heard instead of the panicking and defensive one of Tony.

“What happened?” Darcy asks.

“We had less time; we couldn’t stop the Extremis explosion and we couldn’t stop Happy from investigating.” Pepper explains, Darcy feels her stomach drop as she remembers Future Pepper describing how bad Happy was from that blast. She leans on the table for support and tries to keep listing to Pepper.

“We managed to get the cops in there and they arrested the man for substance abuse but they couldn’t stop him from taking the Extremis when he was in custody. He took out the front of the Chinese Theater and Happy was still thrown clear across.”

“Is he in a coma?” Darcy forces out the question and only breaths when Pepper says no.

“He’s in bad shape, broken arm and leg, bad concussion but he’s awake.”

Darcy sucks a breath in and stands up straight, she opens her eyes to see both Jane and Ian staring at her, waiting for an answer. She manages to nod her head and give them a thumbs up. Jane lets out a relieved breath of her own and Ian looks confused but gives Darcy a thumbs up back as if he’s trying to be supportive.

“Can someone please tell me why Tony is still trying to get terrorists to his front door?”

“We have to stage his disappearance.”

Darcy waits for the punch line but when one doesn’t come, she really wants to ask Pepper if Tony and her switched bodies or something.

“I’m trying not to freak out here, mind telling me why?” Darcy asks in a careful voice and does feel a bit bad when Pepper’s sad and exhausted sigh echoes through her phone.

“We don’t have any other choice, we can’t wait, the only way to make sure that Killian doesn’t get away with it is draw him out, it means Tony has to disappear, it means the house has to explode.” Pepper sounds on the edge of screaming and that’s when Darcy is finally clued in to the clanging and other noises in the background.

“Are you guys trying to move your entire house in a few hours?” Darcy asks, really hoping Pepper hasn’t gone crazy at this point.

“No, Tony doomsday proofed the lab, everything important is getting moved down there, Steve has already been told what’s going on, Tony has a suit all set up we just.” Pepper stops and lets out another beyond exhausted sigh. “We just have to play their game now.”

Darcy cannot wait to meet Dr. Strange because she is going to kick this guy’s ass for putting Pepper and Tony through this.

“Stay safe, stick close to the agents with the sharp weapons.” Darcy tries to joke and it works as Pepper let out a half laugh.

“Tell Jane to stay safe as well and please don’t watch the news, no one needs to see it if possible.” 

Darcy nods her head even though Pepper can’t see it and although she doesn’t want to hang up, she says her goodbyes and ends the call. She stands in the middle of the flat for a second before looking around until she finds the remote. She goes and turns off the news showcasing Tony’s melodramatic rant and then takes the batteries out of the remote and throws them out in the kitchen.

“Uh.” Ian starts and Darcy turns to see him staring between her and Jane.

“What…what now?” Darcy thinks that’s a pretty good question that she doesn’t have the answer to so she shrugs and then sits down at the kitchen table.

“Pepper ordered us not to watch the big bang at the mansion so.” She stops and shrugs again before looking to Jane. “Thor visited this weekend, right? Did you drag him to another tourist trap?”

Jane can probably tell she’s desperate for a distraction because she doesn’t bug Darcy for more information, just gives her a small smile and takes out her phone to show her pictures.

***

Darcy is admiring the fact that Thor managed to take a picture without crushing Jane’s cellphone when suddenly the equipment on the work station starts going crazy. Everything either begins pinging like a video game or vibrating like a phone on silent. Ian leaps up but then stops and looks to them as if he’s waiting for their reaction. Darcy and Jane give each other one solemn look, both knowing what’s about to happen, before getting up from the kitchen table and grabbing the gear.

“Are we sure the readings are right?” Jane asks and Darcy takes a closer look before shrugging. Jane sighs and shakes the thing before banging it on the table.

“Okay, thought you were going to do something a bit more scientific but that’s fine.” Darcy mutters. Jane gives her another look and stands there for a second, staring at the machine before groaning.

“Okay, yes the readings are right, let’s start this awful adventure already.” Jane says. Darcy takes a deep breath and nods.

“I got your back and Thor has your back and unfortunately Loki will have your back.” Darcy says and Jane actually looks at her and smiles.

“That is not comforting.” She says as she tries to push down her snickers. Darcy smiles and slings a bag of equipment over her shoulder before throwing something towards Ian.

“Well, if everything is going to shit at least I still got my humor.” Darcy says desperate to do anything to distract from the plan maybe falling apart. Jane nods and moves out the door.

“Ian, be useful, grab some stuff.” Darcy calls as she follows behind Jane.

“I’m actually not- “Ian starts to say but realizes that both women are already gone. He nods and quickly grabs his stuff as well as everything else.

***

“You’re gonna wanna take the next left.” Ian says from where he was navigating from the back seat.

“By the way, why is there a SHIELD agent with us?” Jane asks, annoyance clear in her voice.

“Oh, he’s here to clear the way in case the government gets annoying while we are busy doing superhero space stuff. But you know he’s so good at carrying the stuff I might just take him on as my intern.” Darcy jokingly says and bites her lip at the inside joke that only she gets.

“Um. I am actually on mission here, only to help you two with your mission. Dr. Foster, it’s a great honor to be working with you.” Ian tries to state but Darcy is already waving her hand for him to stop.

“Have you ever been out in the field before?”

“No, I’m mostly assigned to computer work, hacking, coding- “He starts again but Darcy interrupts him.

“Okay so this is your first time which technically makes you an intern.”

Jane looks back at Ian who has his mouth open and his brows crinkled as he thinks it over before apparently seeing the logic in Darcy’s crazy. Or he’s just given up already either way he just he looks back down at the phone.

“Take a right.” Ian says suddenly and Darcy turns sharply wondering for the first time why they are letting the sleep deprived one drive them.

***

They eventually pull up in front of the factory, much to the disbelieving looks of all three of them.

“Are we sure this is it?” Jane asks.

“I mean, it’s kind of a stereotype to have an ancient stone or aether or whatever in an old abandoned warehouse but I’m guessing the stone doesn’t know about pop culture.” Darcy quips and with a groan from Jane they all get out of the car.

“Do you want the phasemeter?” Darcy asks Jane who is already walking towards the building.

“No.” she calls over her shoulder. Darcy still shrugs and throws the keys at Ian.

“Bring the phasemeter. The toaster looking thing.” She practically orders and he fumbles a bit but listens. She’s giving him a hard time but if she’s going to trust any kind of SHIELD agent, he’s gotta listen to orders and go through initiation first.

She tries to catch up with Jane but the tiny scientist has already turned the corner so with a sigh Darcy pulls out her cellphone and calls her. She hears the hip-hop ringtone Tony had programmed onto Jane’s phone as a joke and rolls her eyes.

“How do I change the ringtone on this thing?” Jane calls and Darcy scoffs but waits until Jane picks up the phone to answer.

“I taught you how to work emoji’s but you can’t figure out your ringtone?” Darcy asks. Jane turns around and gives her a look.

“Why are you calling me?”

“I didn’t want to shout. Come on, it’s this way.”

When Darcy called this place a cliché, she didn’t think it would live up to the hype but the building is dilapidated, creepy and empty, just like every abandoned factory in every single movie she’s ever seen. They suddenly hear hurried footsteps and Darcy’s heartbeat picks up, not remembering if other people were supposed to be here.

“I am not getting stabbed in the name of science.” Darcy mutters before putting her hands up and calling out. “It’s okay we’re Americans!”

Even Ian gives her a look on that one, not her best she’ll admit.

“Is that supposed to make them like us?” Jane mutters.

“They’ll make it go away.” A scared voice says before three kids come out from behind the corner and Darcy sighs in relief.

“Are you the police?” the girl asks as she steps up to them cautiously.

“No, we’re scientists. “Jane says but then pauses. “Well I am.”

Darcy takes offense to that.

_It’s not like I’m a time traveler who’s trying to save the universe or anything._

“We just found it.” One of the boys say and Jane steps closer.

“Can you show us?” For the first time excitement seems to be back in her voice, the only thing that takes Jane’s fear away is science.

They play follow the leader with the kids for a while, trekking through the maze-like factory. Until one of the kids walks over to a truck and with just his two fingers lifts it into the air and sends it floating. It spins slowly above the ground as if gravity isn’t a thing.

“That doesn’t seem right.” Darcy mutters as the kids call for them to keep moving and all three of them cautiously edge around the truck. Their all climbing an endless tower of stairs when the kids finally stop, they watch as one of the boys dangles a glass bottle above the stairs. He lets it go and they all follow it’s decent with their eyes until it’s just gone. A noise that honestly sounds like something slurping is heard and a second the bottle goes poof.

“Where’d it go?” Jane asks nervously and very cryptically the little girl just points upward. They look up and watch in amazement as the bottle poofs back in only to fall and poof back out, like a huge invisible circle. Soon Jane is throwing a can over the edge and they wait…but nothing comes back.

“Sometimes they come back and sometimes they don’t.” the little girl says a bit ominously and Darcy is starting to get seriously wary of this kid.

The device on the equipment Ian is carrying starts beeping and Jane makes a grab for it, she looks at the readings and Darcy watches the woman slowly grow nervous and scared. Darcy kind of gets it, Clint went through the same thing when he had to be mind controlled, it’s scary walking into your own potential doom.

“Jane.” Darcy tries and Jane does look up, but all Darcy can give her is an encouraging smile. Jane takes another deep breath before nodding her head, steeling herself for the inevitable.

“Don’t follow me.” She says and then looks down at the machine in her hands and walks up the stairs to get deeper into the factory.

***

_Jane_

She’s floors above them and although she can’t possibly sense an actual magical space stone (Darcy’s words) Jane can still feel her stomach tying up in knots. She hears laughter and looks over the edge to see Darcy and Ian throwing stuff down to entertain the kids, Darcy actually looks stress free for the first time in hours and honestly, it calms Jane down. If the girl that go chased by the Hulk and has to eventually face a brainwashed Hydra assassin (Darcy’s words) isn’t scared then Jane can trust in Thor and Darcy to bring her back home.

She feels a sudden breeze blow her hair into her face and the readings start going off the charts. Jane feels excitement build once again at the thought of being so close to the aether. She looks towards the gusts and walks into them, letting them lead her farther into the warehouse. She loses the sounds of the others and soon she’s all alone, wandering the halls and listening to the beeping of her machine and the clacking of her heels against the concrete floor. Suddenly she hears a whisper of…something, she’s not sure but it brings chills up her spine, and when she turns, she sees a dark vacant doorway at the end of a hall. Even though everything inside her is screaming that the logical choice would be to turn around she admits that she doesn’t want too. She almost feels like something is pulling her towards the darkness.

Then something really is pulling her down the hall, her feet slide across the floor as Jane pinwheels her arms to stay up, she’s panicking, she can feel whatever is on the other side of that door and it’s powerful. She’s speeding towards the darkened doorway with no end in sight and then she’s gone.

One second she’s in the warehouse and by the next she’s trying to balance herself from going over a cliff. She looks around to find herself in a cave or a temple made up of alien ruins.

“Darcy!” She shouts, all that comes back is her echo and the same deep almost growling she heard before. This time she can tell where it’s coming from and she gulps nervously as she slowly turns around to face the source of the noise.

A stone pillar, with a red light glowing inside.

Jane slowly steps forward as the buzzing growling noise gets louder. She tries to take a closer look at the red light but can’t see anything past the small crack in the pillar, she starts to circle it until she makes her way to the other side. The crack is bigger and she’s able to rest her hand on the edge and stare inside. It’s like a black liquid or gas, maybe a plasma, almost like tar; it orbits around a glowing red center, the whole thing pulsing with power and hypnotic to observe.

It grabs her before she has time to move away.

The tentacle of black and red surround her arm and pull her towards the stone, it burns and feels like ice at the same time and the only clear thought Jane can get through her head is to get it off her.

A second later it disappears and distantly she hears the pillar slam shut but she can still feel it, she’s aware that she’s hyperventilating as she madly rubs at her skin hoping somehow to banish it, whatever it is, from her body. She can already feel it inside of her, racing through her veins, it’s getting hard to breath and everything is spinning; she barely feels her knees hit the ground but is almost thankful when everything goes dark because it means the buzzing will stop.

Jane hits the floor and the silence echoes.

***

_Pepper_

Pepper Potts stands in her own bubble of unbearable silence as she leans on the car that Tony had pushed her into a half hour ago and told her to just drive. She couldn’t hold back the tears as she watched the man she loved get smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror and now here she stood. The Malibu home a tiny sight from her vantage point.

But it doesn’t matter how far she gets, because she still collapses as she watches the first explosion hit the house and lights it up in a fiery inferno. One right after the other Pepper watches as the missiles hit the house and her home crumbles into the ocean. She can feel her sobs getting more desperate and knows she’s heading towards a panic attack. She fully leans against the car and takes a desperate breath when her head starts spinning.

She closes her eyes and tries to block out the tears and her shaking shoulders as she works on her coping mechanism. She hadn’t told Tony that she had started going to therapy too, but after what Darcy told her, she knew she was going to need it. There was one thing she had been using for the months to calm down, ever since the battle of New York.

She pictures the lake house.

She had Darcy explain it in all the detail the girl could muster from memory, the house, the field, the lake and Morgan, running through it all with a smile on her face. Her little girl, her and Tony’s kid, all safe and sound at the lake house.

She finally takes the first steadying breath and it feels like salvation. She doesn’t open her eyes, just keeps picturing the little girl with Tony’s eyes and her sharp smile, she can almost hear her little girls’ sweet giggles. It reminds her why they are doing this, because at the end of all this is a home and she wants it, she wants that home and daughter with Tony so badly. It grounds her so that she can finally hear something other than her desperate breaths and the far-off explosions. Her phone is ringing and Pepper honestly has no idea who could be calling her right now until she checks her caller ID and almost collapses all over again.

_Holly Lewis is calling…._

In the past two years Holly had become a good friend of Pepper and now Pepper was holding back sobs as she realizes she has to answer the phone. She has to lie to her friend and tell her that her brother, who she had only met two years ago may or may not be dead.

She takes a gasping breath again only to be cut off by someone calling her name. Pepper wildly looks around but can’t find anyone near her, a screech suddenly blasts in her ear, she winces and grabs for it only to feel a small communicator in her ear. She forgot in her panic that Tony had slipped it to her before she left.

“Sorry about that Pepper but I had to get your attention.”

Clint Barton had been an anomaly in Pepper’s life in the beginning, but hearing his voice now is a godsend and it makes her want to cry in relief to know that her friend is still there.

“Holly is calling me; I’m going to have to lie to her. I’m going to have to tell her that her brother may be dead.” Pepper gets out and for a second theirs silence and then Clint lets out a tired sigh.

“Remind me to put Darcy has got to tell her family all this shit on my to do list. Either that or they can just start going to the farm for safety every time this shit goes down because none of us need this emotional bullshit.” Clint rants which actually makes Pepper and another person laugh.

“Sharon Carter is here too, you guys met before. They got here when you left, Steve’s already tracking Tony, everything’s okay…. I mean you house did get blown up but again that’s technically an asshole space wizards’ fault.” Clint replies and Pepper was laughing again. She felt so absurd, standing miles from her exploding house while her superhero boyfriend flies off to Tennessee and her friends who are spies reassure her everything is okay.

Nothing has been okay since Tony Stark and Darcy Lewis crashed into her life.

Pepper takes another deep breath and closes her eyes for a brief second, once again picturing the lake house and Morgan. She gets a happy ending, if they pull all this off, they all get a happy ending. So, with that in mind Pepper takes a shaky breath and prays that Holly will forgive her when all this is over.

Holly has already tried to call her three times, on the fourth time Pepper picks up and stares at the fire miles away. The panic and worry Holly Lewis hears in Pepper’s voice isn’t fake. 

She’s scared, but she’s going to survive this.

***

_Darcy_

Darcy at one point had everything under control, sure she freaked out when Jane “disappeared” but she knew she was coming back so she was prepared to wait it out. Then the kids started panicking and one of them pulled out their cellphone and called the police, then they ran away. Agent Ian McSmiles kept saying how he had to call his superiors and if Darcy had to remind him one more time that technically she had higher clearance then he did she’s just going to knock him out and let him sleep it out in the car.

Now she was trying to explain to a British cop who obviously didn’t like Americans that everything was absolutely fine and their missing scientist was not actually missing. Why were they at the abandoned factory you ask? Well…um…. you see.

Jane Foster, it turns out has perfect timing because right as Darcy was stuttering through her answer Jane comes barreling out of the building.

“Jane!” Darcy calls with relief as she runs to hug her friend but stops at the last second remembering something about explosions or something.

“How long?” Jane asks looking truly freaked out.

“Five hours.” Is all Darcy says and Jane nods her head and gulps. She opens her mouth but that’s when the two finally notice the rain happening literally around them. Jane reaches out her hand but they stay dry as a circle surrounds them. Both women spin around to find Thor in all his cape blowing majestic god like presence standing feet away from them. Jane sighs and of course runs over to him, Darcy lets them have their moment, even though they literally saw each other like two days ago.

She turns to find a commotion going on with the police and Ian. Ian tries to show him his badge but apparently it isn’t a good one because the cops are turning him against the car and Darcy doesn’t care how smart or good at hacking this “agent” is, Darcy is telling Fury not to let him outside again after this. She groans and runs over to the slightly still happy couple, but judging by Thor’s confused expression Jane hasn’t told him the bad news yet.

“Hey.” She says awkwardly as she slides in next to them and turns to Jane. “So, does he know about…” Darcy trails off and Jane bites her lip and avoids Thor’s eyes.

“Haven’t gotten to that yet, Thor was just getting to telling me that Heimdall apparently saw you and me doing stuff that didn’t make sense.” Jane tries to explain still looking everywhere but at Thor.

Darcy’s eyebrows crinkle in confusion until she catches back up on her Norse god history and remembered that Heimdall sees all or whatever which means.

“Did a Norse god tattle on me that I went time traveling?” Darcy blurts out.

“What?” Thor asks truly confused. Jane face palms, Thor looks between the two of them and Darcy looks back to see that Agent Incompetent is actually getting arrested.

“Our hacker extraordinaire is getting detained, I’ll handle Fabio if you go free him.” Darcy offers and Jane looks back and lets out a frustrated noise. She gives Thor a quick look of apology before moving over to handle the cops. Darcy faces Thor who looks at her almost accusingly and she can’t help herself as she puts a smile on her face and pokes at his abs.

“Look at you, still all muscly and everything.” Darcy looks up at him and Thor looks unimpressed.

“How’s space?”

“Space is fine. However, you and Jane aren’t telling me something.”

Darcy blows out a breath and tries to figure out how to explain that she technically let Jane touch a super dangerous rock.

“Okay, so remember how I told you that shit was going to go down in the nine realms or whatever and you had to put a stop to it before war broke out? And you did, and it was great because it meant you got to visit Jane like all the time?” Thor apparently is on to her stalling tactics and just waits her out.

“So…there’s a downside to me having all that good knowledge.” Darcy finally says and Thor instantly becomes concerned.

“Are you both alright?” He asks and Darcy bites her lip.

“Me? I’m fine…but Jane…well right now Jane- “Darcy doesn’t get to finish that thought because that question on Jane and explosions is finally answered.

The police officer goes to grab Jane’s arm and the second he makes contact Jane literally explodes. Or at least whatever is inside of her explodes in a vast destructive red and black orb that expands out of Jane’s body. It knocks the cops off their feet and Darcy is covered by Thor before she can see anything else but it’s hard to miss the sound of all the windows within ten feet of them instantly smashing. Darcy feels the tail end of the red wave hit her and it makes the air feel hot and buzzy, her whole body feels like it’s going through an adrenaline rush just being near whatever the stone is puffing out of Jane. The red color fades fast and before Darcy can get a good look Thor is already running towards Jane with worry in his voice.

“Place your hands on your heads. Step back.” Darcy watches as a nervous cop tries to approach them but she already can tell it’s not going to go well.

“This woman is unwell.”

“She’s dangerous.”

“So am I.”

Darcy and Jane move at the same time, Jane takes a deep breath in and stands up straight pulling Thor back a bit while Darcy runs in front of the couple with her hands up.

“Woah woah woah how about we deescalate this situation huh?” Darcy asks the cops and can see that all they really want to do is get out of here. She sighs and slowly puts her hands down.

“Just give us a second?” Darcy asks and it takes a minute but the cop reluctantly nods and returns to where the rest are gathered around their patrol cars. Darcy turns to see Jane trying to placate a worried Thor.

“What do you mean the stone is inside of you?” Thor asks, seeming angry and confused at the same time.

“It’s fine, well not fine but it’s solvable I promise.” Jane tries and Darcy knows Jane doesn’t deserve the heat for this so she steps up.

“We didn’t tell you because we knew you would try to stop it and we both agreed we couldn’t risk it.” Darcy says. Thor turns to her while Jane closes her eyes and tries to stay upright.

“You knew this would happen?” Thor asks sounding hurt and it honestly pains Darcy to do the big guy dirty like this but she nods.

“I knew about the nine realms because somehow I time traveled or my mind did and I found out a lot of stuff, one of those things was Jane getting body snatched by the reality stone.” Thor looking angry, even takes a step forward as Darcy instinctively takes a step back. She knows Thor wouldn’t hurt her but an angry Thor is a scary Thor.

“I swear, I will tell you everything, even the reason why we didn’t tell you but that has to be after because we are on a clock now and Jane needs you to help her.” Darcy is begging and Thor looks back at Jane who opens her eyes to nod her head at him. Thor sighs and turns back to Darcy.

“This will turn out alright?” He asks.

“More or less. I wasn’t there I don’t know the full scope of things.”

Thor nods and then wraps his arm around Jane’s waist.

“Hold on to me.” He then turns and holds his arm out for Darcy and Darcy looks at it confused before realizing he wants her to join them.

“Oh, I don’t come at least I didn’t.”

“But you know of what will happen. You could aid us.”

Darcy sucks in a breath and makes an eh noise.

“You see we are working with an infinity stone here so we gotta be careful. I’ll stay and do damage control.” Darcy takes a significant step back from the two and Thor looks at her for a second before reluctantly nodding.

“If you mind changes call for Heimdall, he will bring you to us.” Thor says before pulling Jane close and looking up to the sky.

In seconds symbols are being burned into the ground and an eye searing rainbow light show is happening in front of her eyes. Darcy squints and takes some steps back but can’t see anything until Jane and Thor are long gone. She walks closer to the weird Norse circle thing and looks at the sky, letting out a breath of relief and exhaustion. She turns around to see the disarray of broken windows and confused cops left for her to deal with.

“Shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be mostly Thor: Dark World with maybe a bit of what's going on with Pepper and Tony in Iron Man 3.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it and are excited for more!


	3. I've Been Spinning Now For Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So managed to get this chapter out quicker then I thought I would! This is all Thor: Dark World so we get through a lot of the movie, I should be finishing up with it in about another chapter.
> 
> As you will see I changed a lot up from the movie but that was my purpose with this fic sooooo....
> 
> Hope you guys like it!
> 
> Once again and as always, I am beyond grateful for the continued support through reviews, kudos and subscribers!

_“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.” – Unknown_

**Missed call from Mom (4)**

**Missed call from Magpie (2)**

**Missed call from Momo**

**Call from Magpie…**

The phone starts ringing again and Darcy lets out a despairing moan as she graciously accepts the tea that Ian hands her. It turns out that Agent Intern is good for something, he pulled out his laptop and did some kind of cyber magic that got the police to back off and it turns out he also makes a really good cup of tea. She took a hearty sip and enjoys the feeling of the warmth that slowly spreads through her body from the hot drink, it calms her down. She almost manages to hold onto that calm as her phone starts ringing again. Darcy glares at the phone as her mother’s name pops up yet again; she’s trying really hard to restrain herself and not throw her phone against a wall. 

The call went to voicemail and reminded Darcy that her mother had now tried to call her five times. She looks away from her phone screen and across the table to where Ian quietly sits, sipping his own tea while he works on his laptop. It takes a few minutes but eventually Ian looks up and notices Darcy staring at him. He clears his throat a little awkwardly and the sound of him putting his mug down practically echoes in the silent flat.

For the first time since she’s got there Darcy wonders where Jane’s mom is? Isn’t this her house?

“So…what do we do now?” Ian asks and Darcy just stares at him for a second before letting out a chuckle.

“You know for a guy that’s supposed to know what he’s doing you never sound like you do.” Darcy says and tries to make it sound kind but Ian takes it well. His lips twitch in a smile before he answers.

“I never said I was a competent field agent, I’m not like the specially trained ones we have, I wouldn’t have been on the ground in New York. But I was able to get the police off us, delete any mention of us and confuse their systems just enough that they won’t be bothering us again.” He explains which Darcy thinks is deserving of a small round of applause which Ian does jokingly bows a bit for.

“My experience is mostly virtual and contained and I keep asking what we are doing because one of my orders was to take orders from you and Dr. Foster.” Ian shrugs. “So, what are we doing?”

Darcy rests her chin on her hands and thinks it over for a second.

“Well we actually do have to wait for a while, a few hours at least. At some point we do have to go get Selvig, pretty sure SHIELD already has tabs on him and we don’t have to call in the cavalry until the off-world threat comes to our world.” Ian opens his mouth probably to ask how she knows this but Darcy just holds a hand up. “I just know, can’t say anything else.” Ian promptly closes his mouth back up.

Darcy’s phone starts to ring again and this time she growls as she snatches it up and just shuts it off.

She can’t answer the phone because she can’t possibly lie to her mom and Maggie again, she can’t pretend to cry that Tony is dead. She wants to tell them everything, it’s been so much easier since her mom found out about the time travel but she can’t yet. How is she supposed to explain Bucky? How can she risk information of him getting out? She has to wait, when Bucky is safe then she’ll tell them.

It still kills her inside to imagine Maggie and her mom desperately calling Darcy because they think Tony is dead. Sitting here doing nothing and worrying about how much her family is suffering is definitely going into the top ten of shitty things time travel is making her do.

“You know, I was surprised you didn’t go with them.” Ian says and Darcy looks back up to see him otherwise absorbed in his work but glancing at her, he looks back and stops when she stares at him but he just shrugs.

“I mean, you and Jane clearly knew what was going on and still went through with it, I… I had trouble with the police. I’m not really cut out for Avengers Initiative level things.” Ian actually looks back at her and gives her an admiring smile. “But when I read the reports on what you and Dr. Foster did during the Battle of New York, well it was amazing. You helped save a lot of lives.” He finishes and smiles again before going back to his work. Darcy just continues to stare at him a she takes in his words.

_You helped save a lot of lives…._

Yet here she sat while very well knowing that Thor was about to lose his mother and his brother for the second time. She kept telling herself it’s what needed to happen but thinking it over, what did their deaths have to do with the infinity stone?

Nothing.

So why was she still sitting here?

“If Strange can fuck with the timeline then so can I.” Darcy says and she smiles at Ian when he glances at her, she pushes away from the table and rushes to the coat rack. She spends a brief moment deciding between the leather jacket and her shield jacket before choosing the more badass leather jacket.

“Um. Where are you going.” Ian says sounding nervous. Darcy races back over to the table and grabs her cellphone.

“Hold that thought.” She tells him as she calls Clint.

“Talk to me.” Clint says absentmindedly when he picks up.

“Do you really answer the phone like that?” She questions and she can hear the smile in Clint’s voice as he answers.

“Only for people that annoy me.” 

Darcy rolls her eyes.

“Okay look, change of plans. I’m about to go off world so put the call into Natasha and probably Agent Hill because those two women could definitely get a fleet over to London in record time. If you can somehow get Bruce away from my probably distraught mother that would be great too.” Darcy rushes to explain as she pulls on her jacket and throws her hair up in a ponytail.

“Wait Darcy what the fuck?” Clint asks sounding so confused.

“Look, I know to be careful because it’s an infinity stone, I’ll make sure everything works out but I can’t let Thor’s family die. Loki may deserve another fake death but Frigga doesn’t deserve a permanent one.” Darcy explains and waits for Clint to tell her no again only for silence to greet her.

“Shit kid, a little more warning next time would be good.” Clint groans and Darcy is surprised theirs no more negotiating.

“You’re not going to fight me on this?”

“I know that tone of voice, I’d rather send you into an alien god war with a good luck instead of cussing each other out.” Clint says still sounding like he’s not thrilled by any of this but Darcy can’t hide the smile that makes its way onto her face.

“Don’t worry about me, just pass London off to Nat and Hill, focus on Pepper and Tony.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going to worry about your sorry ass anyway, just be safe kid.” Clint says and Darcy ends the call feeling more ready to run off to Asgard then she was before. She turns back to Ian who now is standing in the kitchen and looking mildly freaked out.

“You’re going to Asgard?!” He practically yells.

“Yeah, I’ll try to update you somehow but you’re job now is to find Selvig and get him back here for when we get back.” Darcy says pointing at him and giving him a nod before making her way towards the door. Only to hear a clamor of noise and stop short when Ian grabs her wrist. She turns to give him a defiant look and he slowly let’s go.

“Look you can’t go; I wasn’t encouraging you I was just trying to make you feel better. I was ordered to keep you safe, I promised to keep you safe.” Ian stresses and honestly, Darcy is touched by this but she doesn’t have time for it.

“That’s really sweet and weird of Fury that he cares so much but you can tell him you tried you best but I fought you off. Remember to get Selvig.” Darcy says and moves before he can react. Speeding out the door and slamming it behind her.

Ian just stands there for a second, staring at the spot that Darcy had been occupying just a few seconds ago.

“He’s going to kill me.” He says.

***

Darcy almost takes the car but in the end realizes that Ian is going to need it for the equipment and to go pick up Erik, so she stores the keys in the mailbox and shoots off a text to Ian where he can find them before hailing a cab and giving off the address of the factory. It takes way longer to get there without Darcy’s speed but she gets dropped off and waves the suspicious cabby off with a very unconvincing smile. She turns and looks over the area, it looks exactly as it did before, even has the same burnt Norse marks in the ground, she walks over to the spot and stands in the middle of it. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, she’s not sure if being in the same spot is actually going to help but she’s never done this before so anything could work.

“HEIMDALL.” She yells before she has time to really think this over and she is answered immediately. 

Wind starts blowing all around her and the technicolor light show is back. Darcy wraps her arms around herself tightly and squeezes her eyes shut, preparing herself for the unknown. Her feet shoot off the ground and in seconds she’s off planet earth.

Two seconds too late, someone tries to call Darcy’s phone but because of the gale force level winds happening around her Darcy doesn’t notice her phone until it’s too late.

It will be a while until Darcy sees that she’s missed a call from Nicholas ‘Stupid head’ Lewis.

***

“Heimdall just let someone into the gates.” Frigga says as Thor stops his run towards the prison and looks at the rainbow bridge just as a portal was closing. He felt hope fill his chest and looks to Jane who also looks happier.

“I will send someone to get Darcy to you, stay safe.” Thor calls and then takes a flying leap off the balcony and allowed Mjolnir to guide his way to the prisons.

***

Darcy takes a huge breath in once the wind stops blowing and the light stops blinding her. Turns out planet jumping, realm jumping or whatever it was called, seriously knocks the breath out of you. She takes a staggering step and almost falls on the…. gold floor, damn.

“Darcy Lewis.” A deep voice calls and she turns to see a tall muscular, man in gold amour approaching her.

_Oh woah…okay so Heimdall._

“Heimdall?” She speaks aloud and the man-god gives her an almost smile while he looks at her with eyes that indeed do look like they know all the secrets of the universe.

“I was waiting for you.” He says.

“Oh, okay so you knew I was going to give into the adrenaline rush eventually good to know. How’s Jane?” Darcy tries for casual so she won’t freak out that she actually did it! She’s on Asgard! Talking to more Norse Mythological people!

“From what I know Jane Foster continues to be fine but unsettled and- “Heimdall stops talking suddenly and looks past Darcy, out one of the doorways in the big bubble building. Darcy follows him not knowing what else to do, even though from all she can see he’s just looking at an endless stretch of ocean. Darcy squints her eyes to see if it’s just too far for her human eyes but continues to see zilch. She jumps when Heimdall suddenly grabs her arm and starts running towards the bridge.

“You must go, run and get to the city as fast as you can, you must reach the palace limits.” Heimdall orders as he yanks Darcy in front of him and pushes her towards the rainbow bridge. She’s in awe of the rainbow glass until she looks up and actually gasps as she sees her first glimpse of Asgard. Nothing on earth could have prepared her for the sight of the golden city.

“Holy shit.” Darcy breaths as she takes in the sight of the alien architecture and the grandiose of it all that seemed to leak out of every square inch of Asgard.

“GO!” Heimdall yells at her and she jumps in surprise only to look over and see him jumping off the rainbow bridge. Darcy lets out a shriek and rushes to the edge to see Heimdall perfectly fine and running up one of the gold loop supports of the bridge. Darcy watches mesmerized as the Norse god climbs higher and higher, when he gets to the top, he draws two daggers and jumps from the highest point making Darcy scream again.

He lands on something and stabs it, and right before Darcy’s eyes an archaic alien space ship appears in all its red and black stone glory. It explodes from where Heimdall had ran it through with his knives and starts to crash into the water.

Darcy understands now, the dark elves invasion was on.

She starts running as fast as she can down the rainbow bridge and towards the city.

She hears another loud explosion and can feel the heat of the ship getting closer’ she turns to see how close it is only to duck when a flying Norse god comes careening onto the rainbow bridge. He lands and then a few seconds later Darcy is singed when a flaming space ship crashes a few feet in front of them. Heimdall takes the help that Darcy gives him to stand up and tries to catch his breath. Darcy looks in front of her and is about to ask how she is supposed to climb over flaming spaceship rubble when a roaring noise is heard and they both turn around slowly to see what could only be the mothership. Smaller ships just like the one Heimdall took out come pouring out of it and fly straight towards the city.

“You have to go.” Heimdall said dead serious and Darcy looks at him hopelessly.

“I am all for that but how am I supposed to get- “

Of all things to hear, the galloping and whinnying of a horse is not what Darcy expected. Heimdall pushes her behind him and pulls out his daggers, getting in a battle-ready stance. Darcy tries to peek over his shoulder and is greeted with the sight of a giant horse in armor leaping over the rubble. Heimdall instantly stands up straight as the rider and horse stop right in front of them.

“Fandral.” Heimdall greets and Darcy can’t help but stare a little at the man-probably a god actually – who sits on top the of the horse. With his blonde hair and almost cocky smile he looks like a Shakespearian prince charming.

“Thor said a lady needed assistance.” Fandral said while actually flourishing a hand in greeting. Honestly, the fact that this guy still had time to flirt and be charming in the middle of an all-out invasion was kind of impressive. Darcy runs towards the horse and Fandral hops off to give her a leg up into the saddle.

“Lady Darcy?” He asks even though it’s kind of obvious but hey, he has manners.

“Hi yes, and under different circumstances you seem like a fun guy. Especially at parties but for right now we need to go.” Darcy says as Fandral gets back on the saddle in front of her.

“She’s right, ride as fast as you can.” Heimdall says solemnly, already backing up and heading back to his bubble building. Fandral salutes him and then guides the horse to face towards the city.

“Hold on tight, let’s see how fast we can go.” Fandral said and that was all the warning Darcy got before the horse took off charging. She flounders a bit before grabbing Fandral around the waist and squeezing against him as tight as she can with all his armor on. She does scream when they jump and clear the debris but to be fair it was a really fucking high and long jump, she almost fell off when they landed and the horse still wasn’t slowing down, she’s pretty sure this has to be a special Norse god horse because horses can’t possibly go this fast.

She hears a zooming sound and manages to open her eyes to watch as more ships cut through the air heading straight for Asgard. She hears Fandral let out a growl and he pushes the horse to move faster which makes Darcy cling tighter to him. Her hearing is almost taken out by the loud sonic booms of the canons firing on the ships. They weave in and out of the beams but a few hit and Darcy once again feels the heat as a ship explodes close to the bridge.

Suddenly more rapid fire sonic booms are heard as flying boats of all things come sailing through the air and fire at the spaceships, one manages a fatal hit and the ship explodes causing a black cloud of smoke and ash to cloud their path, they still ride straight in and Darcy closes her eyes as the debris in the air gives her a hacking cough. Once they finally clear it Fandral lets out some kind of curse that she’s guessing is an Asgard thing and Darcy manages to peak over his shoulder to see that a gold forcefield is starting to surround the palace.

“Hold on!” Fandral calls to her.

“What do you think I’ve been doing?” Darcy asks frantically and she totally screams again when the horse jumps over the slowly growing barrier as they skid to the other side of the palace steps. Darcy gasps as the adrenaline fades, she turns and watches the barrier go up, she waits thinking that it can’t be that easy.

She’s right, the barrier starts to go down and a ship skims into the palace, her and Fandral watch as it crashes through the front door reeking destruction as it tears the halls apart. Both of them are silent until Darcy remembers why she jumped on this crazy horse ride in the first place.

“You need to get me to wherever the queen would be her life literally depends on it.” She says and Fandral looks back at her but when he sees how serious her face is, he nods and they quickly dismount the horse when they both realize it won’t be able to get through the destruction. He grabs her hand and they start to run through the halls.

They are climbing over like the 20th rubble pile to get through the hall when blasts and yells are heard from farther down. Darcy looks up to see the crashed space ship blocking the death match on the other side. She hears a noise and turns to see that Asgard Ken now has a sword in his hands. He looks at her and produces a small dagger before turning his head in another direction and she follows. She tries to ignore the cries and tells herself that you can’t try to save everyone because then you couldn’t save anyone. He guides her until they hear the sound of more fighting and they both see the wide-open grand doors that lead to the queen’s chambers, from inside the noise of combat can be heard.

“I will cover you.” Fandral whispers as he steps behind her and Darcy panics for a second as if the Norse expects her to fight an alien better than he can. He just nudges her forward and Darcy decides to just stab whatever she sees first, Clint did teach her to throw a knife semi straight for a reason.

“WITCH!” Darcy hears a scream and it makes her hide at the edge of the doorway and slowly inch her way closer to look into the room, she sees a woman that has to be Frigga. She’s being held by a gnarly looking DnD character and the guy that really does look like what she expected a space elf to look like approaches them.

“Where is the aether?” He demands.

“I’ll never tell you.” Frigga mutters.

Darcy knows what comes next, she’s not letting it happen. She takes a deep breath because she only has one shot at this, so she swings out from her hiding place and screams. She grabs the attention of all three of them, it’s enough for Darcy to take aim and throw her knife.

It doesn’t kill anything; it actually goes lower than she was aiming and lodges into thug dinosaur man’s leg. But it’s enough, Frigga takes the distraction, she kicks the knife in deeper making the creature growl and swings her weapon getting him to release his grip. She twirls until she’s facing the creature and wastes no time beheading him before turning around and pointing her blade at Mr. Pointy Ears.

A bolt of lightning cuts through the room and strikes the elf in the face and he goes down. Frigga blinks in surprise and stutters back a step but is caught by Thor in seconds.

Thor turns to block his mother and Darcy from Malekith but the elf has already hobbled his way outside and over the balcony to a waiting ship that quickly speeds away. Thor quickly turns and brings his attention back to Frigga.

“Are you alright?” Thor asks frantically as he searches his mother for injury and Frigga catches her breath as she nods.

“I am fine.” Frigga turns to Darcy. “Another friend of yours?”

Thor turns and when he sees Darcy, well the man looks like he’s about to cry. He marches straight over to her and tugs her into the tightest biggest hug Darcy’s ever gotten in her life.

“Thank you.” He whispers. Darcy just nods her head and pats his back until he puts her down. Her legs wobble as all the adrenaline rushes out of her and she starts to crash.

She sucks it up and smiles at Frigga, not knowing what else to do she drops into an awkward curtsy.

“Hi your majesty, I’m Darcy. Any chance you could tell me where my wayward scientist is?”

***

_Jane_

Once Thor had managed to pry Jane and Darcy apart from their hug Frigga herself took the young girl to get some food and wash the ashes and debris off herself. Darcy gave her a smile and thumbs up which Jane rolled her eyes at before but now as she sat in her room all alone the quiet was starting to engulf her. She almost wishes she had stuck to Darcy or Thor’s side. She felt sleepy, as if someone had given her sleeping gas and she was slowly going under. She didn’t even notice it when the world went red, but she did know that she had to follow it, had to get closer. She got up and went out to the balcony where the aether danced in the red world. Darkness started to creep in and soon she couldn’t remember her own name, what she is, what she was doing here.

“Jane!” A voice in the distance yelled accompanied by a hand on her arm that woke her up as if she had been in a dead sleep. She springs away only to see Darcy, clean with new Asgard clothes on but still wearing her leather jacket.

“You okay?” Darcy asks looking genuinely and deeply concerned for Jane right now. Jane opens her mouth but doesn’t know how to answer.

“Jane Foster?” Both women turn to see guards approaching them.

“You need to come with us.”

Darcy stands next to Jane and grabs her hand.

“If she’s going then I’m going.” Darcy says firmly and Jane gives her hand a subtle squeeze. The guards look irritated but simply nod their heads and gesture for both of them to move.

Darcy and Jane don’t let go of each other’s hand.

***

_Darcy_

“So, the king is being stupid still, don’t know why I expected a god to somehow be less pigheaded but it’s good to know for future reference.” Darcy rants as she paces in the room that she and Jane are being held in. Technically the way it was worded was guests of the queen but from the angry look on the queen’s face Darcy is guessing that she has been ordered to stay semi trapped in here with them.

“I will speak to him again; he will see reason.” The queen said with anger and steel in her voice. Honestly, Darcy respects this lady and feels like she could totally get them out of this but something is already in the works so Darcy just shrugs and keeps pacing. Frigga looks at the young girl quizzically before turning to Jane only to see the scientist sitting there looking incredibly calm as well.

“Is there something I should know.” Frigga asks in a tone that makes Darcy stop pacing. She watches as Darcy and Jane exchange a look.

“I mean plausible deniability may work out better.” Darcy says almost nervously, not wanting to get on the queen’s bad side. The queen gives her a searching look before apparently finding what she was looking for.

“Well as long as we aren’t just sitting around and waiting.” Frigga says sounding relieved.

_Yeah, I don’t think a total jailbreak and daring escape could be considered nothing._

Thankfully Frigga was right and they didn’t sit their waiting long. A slight commotion was heard from outside and a few seconds later the doors opened to reveal Sif.

“Let’s go.” She says nudging her head forward. Darcy and Jane jump up and move quickly while Frigga stays behind.

“I owe you my life the least I can do is try to stall for your escape.” Frigga says. Darcy gives her a smile and then follows the two other women down the hall. Soon they see Thor up ahead and then from around the pillar comes Loki.

“You.” Jane said in surprise before walking right up to him and before he could get a word out socked him in the jaw.

“That was for New York.” Jane said. No one spoke for a second, all of them in varying levels of shock. Loki suddenly smiles and lets out a chuckle.

“I like her.” Loki says and then looks to see Darcy and surprise flits in his eyes.

“Spawn of Stark’s sister.” Loki somewhat greets. Darcy just rolls her eyes.

“Psychopath.” She says with just as much sass. “Why are you helping us you have no reason too.” It was a good question, with no dead mother to motivate him she’s surprised that Loki is still willingly coming. She watches as he gets a serious look on his face.

“You saved Frigga so I’ll save her.” Loki said pointing to Jane.

That’s good enough for Darcy.

“There they are!” Someone says and Darcy turns towards the end of the hall to see more guards coming through.

“I’ll hold them off. Take them.” Sif says. Darcy watches as Thor gives her a look and then Sif gives him an even more stubborn look.

_Oh, her I like._

“Thank you.” Thor mummers and then there on the move.

“Betray him and I’ll kill you.”

Darcy turns to see Sif has a sword against Loki’s neck but the trickster god just laughs.

“It’s good to see you too Sif.”

_Is he…? flirting? what the fuck?_

Darcy is still giving him a weird look when he turns around, he double takes at her expression but gestures for the both of them to keep walking so with an eyeroll Darcy complies.

Darcy doesn’t know where they’re going until they get in front of the busted-up ship and Vostagg steps out.

“I will give you as much time as I can.” he assures them. Darcy looks up at the alien ship and she can already tell this isn’t going to be fun. They start to board the ship when Darcy hears it over her shoulder.

“If you even think of betraying him.”

“You’ll kill me? Evidently there will be a line.”

Darcy finds herself almost grinning despite everything. It was getting a little ridiculous. She turns around and grabs Loki’s cuffed hands to drag him on board.

“Sif already beat you to it.” She says and drags Loki on the ship. The entire thing looks like some combination of a spaceship from Independence Day and Alien. The whole aesthetic just screams dark and creepy. She waits and watches as Thor hesitates then tries to press a button.

_Does he not know…._

Darcy looks at Jane but she looks equally confused.

“I thought you said you knew how to fly this thing.” Loki chimes in.

“I said how hard could it be.”

…. wow….

They start to hear running soldiers and the sounds of Volstagg fighting them off. Darcy turns to the entrance of the ship nervously.

“Well whatever you’re doing I suggest you do it faster.”

“Shut up Loki.”

“You must have missed something.”

“No, I didn’t.”

_They are…. fighting…like Maggie and I over the last cookie…. what the fuck is my life?_

“I’m pressing every button on this thing.”

“No, don’t hit it. Just press gently.”

_We’re doomed._

“I am pressing it gently it’s not working!” Thor shouts and slams the buttons which finally works and turns on the ship, Darcy lets out a breath of relief and sits next to Jane while the gods squabble.

The ship slowly rises and as they turn around Darcy and Jane both feel it every time Thor hits something.

“I think you missed a column.”

“Shut up.”

They crash through the palace wall and speed through the air with Loki and Thor still squabbling the whole damn way.

Darcy is rolling her eyes when something slumps against her and she realizes that Jane fainted.

“Oh dear. Is she dead?” She hears Loki say and she ignores Thor’s call to glare at the god with all the hell fire she can muster while cradling her aether possessed friend.

“I’m okay.” Jane manages softly and Darcy holds her tighter when the ship shakes from being shot at.

“No offense but you guys have the worst aim in the galaxy. Seriously they shoot like stormtroopers.” Darcy squeals as the ship shakes and dips to get out of the way of the beams.

The ship dips again, sending Darcy and Jane flying to another corner of the ship.

“Now their following us.”

The ship shakes as a bolt hits it.

“Now their firing at us.”

“Yes, thank you, for the commentary Loki! It’s not at all distracting.”

A second later they were speeding towards a tunnel and the ship went up and down like a see saw as Thor rams it through and beheads a statue.

“Well done, you just decapitated your grandfather.”

Darcy now also wants to punch Loki but her hands are too busy keeping Jane steady while the ship whirls and twirls around.

“You know this is wonderful. This is a tremendous idea. Let’s steal the biggest most obvious ship in the universe and escape in that.” Loki continues to rant on and on but Darcy’s eyes are glued to Thor as she watches him open the spaceship door and face Loki.

“It’s truly brilliant!”

Then Thor is shoving Loki out the door.

Darcy’s mouth opens in shock for a second but she doesn’t even have time to fully realize what is going on before Thor is moving over to the two of them and scooping Jane out of her arms.

“Trust me.” Is all he says before he slings an arm around Darcy and then jumps out of the ship himself. Darcy screams and swears after this she will stop jumping out of flying ships because two times is too many.

Darcy hears a familiar chuckle and she opens her eyes to see her feet on a ship and Norse Prince Charming chuckling at Loki. Darcy steps back and looks around to find they are on one of those flying boats from before.

“How are you my lady?” Norse Hottie asks before taking her hand and kissing it. Honestly, two years ago before any of this crap started, she would have swooned but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still flattering. She smiles at Fandral and mock bows.

“Thanks for the dagger.”

He bows in return.

Darcy then moves over to where Thor set Jane down and puts her arms around the woman. Jane snuggles closer to Darcy’s warmth and falls asleep as Loki takes the steering and the ship speeds up. They cut across the water in sharp turns as they try to shake off the ships on their tail.

“Fandral.” Thor says and Darcy looks as he grabs a rope and goes to the side of the ship. He gives Darcy a cocky smile.

“For Asgard.” Then takes a flying leap off the ship.

What is it with people today and jumping off flying things?

But Fandral does his job, they lose the ships and Loki turns them again so they are heading straight for…. a fucking mountain.

“Loki...” Thor says nervously

“If it were easy everyone would do it.”

“Are you mad?”

“Possibly.”

Darcy has had enough.

“Fuck that if you kill us, I will find some way to bring you back just to kill you myself!” Darcy screams at him and Loki just laughs.

They dive into the worlds tiniest cave and that’s when the bright rainbow lights start. Darcy knows what’s coming, she holds Jane closer and ducks down as Thor settles on top of both of them.

The next time Darcy opens her eyes they’re not on Asgard anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So like I said it should be about one more chapter to finish Dark World but we actually are going to leave the Thor crew for a while and switch over to the Iron Man fam and see what's going on with them. Going to try to tell and wrap up their story in the next two chapters before finishing up with Darcy and the rest of the aliens.
> 
> So next chapter we change it up! See you then!


	4. All The Voices In My Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So turns out being an adult with a full time job is just as busy as you might think, finally managed to get this chapter out so please enjoy the first part of Iron Man 3 with the additon of Steve and a fully informed and therapy aided Tony.
> 
> Gotta love Harley, hopefully I can find someway to work him in the fic more!

_“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” – Ernest Hemingway_

_Tony_

Tony had to keep telling himself to not look back, because if he did then he swears he will lose the last grasp on his sanity that he is barely holding onto. His house is crumbling into the ocean and he left Pepper with a chance of still being infected with Extremis. He closes his eyes briefly and takes a steadying breath because he knows from past experience that throwing up in the suit is not an option. It doesn’t help that with his suit on autopilot to Tennessee and banged up enough to be untraceable by anyone Tony Stark had very little options at the moment.

“Stark?” Steve’s call comes over the com and Tony has to bite his tongue from barking at him to shut up.

“Tony.” Steve says, this time in a softer tone and it just makes Tony want to snap at him more, tell him he doesn’t understand any of this. Doesn’t have the burden of the future in his mind as his family shoots off to parts unknown. He almost does break and yell at him, but a plethora of voices that sound like a mix of Pepper, Darcy and Holly all remind him of what could be. Of a semi-friendship ripped apart before it could ever really start and Tony now knows that he doesn’t want to be alone, if he has to face the horrors of the future that Darcy spelled out then he wants the Avengers on standby. If that means making nice with Steve well, fake it till you make it. Tony takes a weak gulp and opens his eyes again to see the ocean still speeding under him as he flies farther away from a home that has fallen into the sea.

“What’s up Capsicle?” Tony manages in only a slight shaky tone. Steve must still pick up on it as Tony has to wait through a hushed pause before Steve answers him.

“Was going to ask how you were holding up but I kind of realized what a stupid question that was.”

Tony is surprised by the laugh that bubbles out of him but he welcomes it.

“Well I’ve asked stupider questions in worse situations so you’re in good company Cap.” Tony says.

“Still…” Steve starts but pauses and Tony actually waits, soaking in the fact that at least he’s not alone on this suicide plan. “

Look, I know I can’t promise anything but Pepper is safe with Sharon and I can promise I’ll have your back out there.” Steve finishes.

It’s not Rhodey as War Machine or Bruce in the lab but the fact that Steve was willing to drop everything and rush to Malibu only to jump in a car and drive to Tennessee all because Tony asked him to….well he would be lying if he said it didn’t warm his cold dead heart a bit.

“That’s a ten four Cap, keep me updated on your route and I’ll let you know when I have to crash land into the rural forests of Tennessee.”

It could have just been static on the com but Tony swore Steve Roger let out a snicker.

***

_Pepper_

Pepper pushes the peddles as far back as it’ll go and is revving the car up past 90 miles an hour which, is a bad idea normally, but with her whole body shaking from adrenaline and the last dregs of her panic attack it makes everything even more dangerous. But she couldn’t stop herself, Clint and Sharon both agreed that Pepper had to put on a show so she took all the stress, worry and desperation she felt, mixes that in with the boiling anger shooting through her veins and she pushes the car to move even faster.

She was going to convince those bastards that she was a devastated widow and then she was going to find them and make them wish they were never born.

She speeds past all the emergency vehicles and news vans, all heading towards the now bare cliffside, she doesn’t even give them a second glance. She knows Clint and Sharon are tucked into the crowd somewhere.

“Just keep going, we’re monitoring the cops, I don’t think they would even pull you over. But it’ll add to the story.” Sharon encourages Pepper through the com that she had been ordered to not turn off under any circumstances. She didn’t plan to, just like Tony was weirdly comforted by Steve’s presence, Pepper felt safe with Clint and Sharon’s voices in her ear.

She stops the car leaving skid marks in the driveway and she’s frozen in her seat for a second as she just stares in open mouth horror at the burning rubble that use to be her home. She takes a shaky breath and hears the piercing emergency sirens getting closer. She manages to turn off her car and climb out on wobbly feet. She starts to slowly approach the ruins of the mansion; in the corner of her eye she sees a woman reach out for her. She dodges quickly and keeps walking, but looks behind her to see a brunette woman, instantly remembering her picture from the files Tony had unearthed.

Maya.

She was important, but not right now.

Pepper turns back around and starts running, she lets the tears she had been holding back fill her eyes as she passes the threshold of where the front door once stood. She coughs through smoke and freezes like a deer caught in the headlights when an ominous creaking is heard right above her head. She looks up only to get an eyeful of plaster, she shakes her head and rubs her eyes before looking around widely as if she would be searching for Tony. She finally manages to make her way to edge of the destruction and as she balances on the crumbling cliff, she looks into the bubbling sea and finds that she doesn’t have to fake anything.

The loud, raw, fearful scream that come out of her is genuine.

“TONY!”

It doesn’t matter if he was at the bottom of the ocean or halfway to Tennessee, they were both balancing on the line between safety and mortal danger, forced to perform this circus act until it was over.

***

_Tony_

“Sir…” Jarvis seems to reluctantly start and Tony doesn’t hold back the groan as he looks down at the snowy forest floor.

This wasn’t going to be fun.

“Of all things it had to be a crash landing.” Tony mutters before sighing. “Alright Cap see you down there.” Tony calls out one more time before closing his eyes and lowering his altitude exponentially before Jarvis shuts down.

It still doesn’t help, when Tony first smacks the ground he rattles around like a mouse trapped in a tin can.

_Could have avoided all this bullshit_ Tony thinks spitefully right before his head rams against a tree and everything goes fuzzy and dark.

_Holly_

**“You’ve reached Tony Stark and I don’t know how you got this number but congrats- “**

Holly lets out a frustrated shrill squeak and raises her hand to throw her cellphone against the wall. Maggie grabs her wrist and Bruce’s hands land firmly on her shoulders, simultaneously stopping her from smashing her phone against the wall. Holly takes a deep breath as she lets Maggie take the phone out of her hand before turning around and throwing her arms around Bruce. The man, still not use to Holly’s touchy-feely nature does stumble a little but quickly catches himself and wraps his arms around her. She snuggles closer to the man not knowing what else to do, technically she had hoped to end their first date with cuddling at least, but she wasn’t enjoying it in this situation.

She thought she knew everything about the insane time traveling superhero plans only to be faced with unanswered phone calls and the ones that were answered told her that they had no idea where her daughter or brother were. Holly sighs in frustration and fear before opening her eyes to see Maggie staring at her over Bruce’s shoulder. Poor Maggie was still in the dark and had spent the last two years being pulled out of school and given bare details, as her other daughter flittered through time and space, while her son just didn’t call anymore.

Once Darcy was back on planet earth, she was nailing her to the ground so they can get everything out in the open because Maggie couldn’t live like this anymore, neither could Holly. She was done feeling guilty and scared because she wanted Tony to be her brother, because she wanted to date Bruce. If everyone else got to risk their lives on the daily well, Holly at least got to be informed of what the hell was going on.

She was done sitting back and living in fear.

As if the universe decided to challenge Holly’s statement the elevator in the tower chimes as the doors open, revealing both Natasha Romanoff and Agent Maria Hill. Both look serious; Holly had a feeling something else big had happened and although it was immature, she couldn’t help the annoyed groan that came out of her mouth. Maria Hill ignored it but Natasha gave her a look with her eyebrows lifted in surprise, one day Holly would be able to tell when Natasha was holding back a smile, but for now she wasn’t able to detect the slight twitch of the redhead’s lips.

“Any news on Tony? Darcy?” Maggie asks as she quickly runs up to the two women and it hits Holly once again how much the three Lewis women have really imbedded themselves in this life. Maggie is talking to two women that could probably kill her seven different ways and make her disappear but all Maggie cares about is getting their wayward family members back.

Natasha and Hill shake their heads at the same time, in sync with each other. Both of them aren’t just here for a social call, it’s obvious by the gear they have on; Hill takes a step towards Maggie and Natasha locks her eyes on Bruce.

“We haven’t been able to locate Tony Stark yet, we can tell you that he is alive, there was no one physically in the house when it exploded. Rogers is out trying to track wherever the suit took Stark.” Hill explains to them and Natasha steps forward, gaze still trained on Bruce but now looking slightly apologetic.

“Also, not why we’re here, unfortunately Bruce, we’re going to need you to suit up for us.”

Holly and Bruce exchange a confused look before looking back at Natasha.

“How is the Hulk going to help find Tony?” Bruce asks almost seeming irritated, Holly reaches to squeeze his hand and he grips hers tight.

“This isn’t to do with Stark or the Mandarin. We received word from the agent that was with Darcy Lewis and Dr. Foster. He says they’ve both left to Asgard and we need to start evacuating parts of London. He says something big is coming.” Natasha finishes and Bruce sighs, resigned but willing and knowing he has to help. That doesn’t stop Holly from letting out her own huff of annoyance.

“I told her to warn me when she leaves the planet! I couldn’t have been more clear on that!” Holly practically shouts as she throws her hands in the air.

“I mean, everything could be fine, she’s with Thor and I trust Darcy. If she could go up against the big guy then I trust her with almost anything.” Bruce says and Holly’s eyes shoot open as she hears Bruce make jokes about the Hulk. She turns to him to see the man trying to put a smile on his face and she knows that he’s trying right now for her benefit, to put her at ease. Of all things, she finds herself blushing over the fact that Bruce cares so much.

“How do we know their fine? Is there a way we could talk to Darcy? And what about Tony? How will we know that he’s okay once Steve has found him?” Maggie says, it’s not an interrogation but Holly can see the determination in her daughters’ eyes and knows that Maggie will keep asking questions until she gets the answers she wants.

“We have an established communication with both Steve Rogers and Pepper Potts, other people are taking Foster’s work and trying to find if communication in another realm is even technologically possible. And we called our best hacker in to try and get through the Stark files to see if we could find anything to connect us to Tony.” Natasha says and it’s like those words were a stage cue because right as she finishes the elevator chimes again. The doors open and an agent, carrying gear and dressed in a SHIELD uniform steps out of the elevator, one look at his face and Holly chokes on her own spit.

She always thought she knew her kids better then they knew themselves, she knew when something was wrong with Darcy before she found out about time travel, helped prepare Maggie days before a breakup happened and Holly had thought she knew when Nicholas was lying to her face.

But apparently her son had a few more tricks up his sleeves.

Natasha wasn’t looking any of them in the eyes as she announced his presence.

“I believe you all know Agent Lewis.”

“NICHOLAS WHAT THE FUCK?”

Maggie pretty much summed up Holly’s entire thought process on that one.

***

_Tony_

_“Sir…”_

_“Tony….”_

_“Sir…”_

_“Come on Tony, wake up….”_

Tony lets out a groan as he is unwillingly dragged back to consciousness, he’s cold and his head is pounding.

“Hey, you okay? Thought the suit would protect your fall?” A voice asks and Tony opens his eyes to see…nothing. He realizes the suit is basically in emergency mode and his mask is now useless. He pries it off and sucks in a deep breath of cold air that just makes his headache worse. He closes his eyes and just focuses on breathing before remembering that Steve is squatting on the ground beside him.

“It’s snowing right? Where are we?”

“ _We are five miles outside Rose Hill Tennessee.”_ Jarvis answers and it makes Tony groan again as his groggy mind remembers why they have to be in Tennessee. He takes another deep breath and starts to get up, he wobbles for a second and Steve is there to catch him under the arm.

 _“I think I may be malfunctioning.”_ Jarvis wobbles out and Tony actually rolls his eyes. He just dropped from the sky into the middle of the woods of course the suit would be malfunctioning.

“Open the suit.” He says and it takes a second but Jarvis is able to crack open and release Tony from his dented metal prison. Tony groans again as he stands up straight and lets Steve pull him up the rest of the way.

“I swear, you say one thing about picking yourself up by your bootstraps and I will start walking back to California.” Tony grumbles as he shakes out his achy limbs. Once again Steve’s lips twitch in a smile.

“Wasn’t saying anything.”

He wasn’t.

But no one told Tony that Steve Rogers had a grin like a smart ass.

Tony sighs as he hears the suit slowly powering down and as he looks at the empty shell, he knows what they have to do.

“We can’t bring a car with California plates into the town, I’m gonna need a coat and your world war ii muscles Rogers.” Tony said turning back to Steve who raises an eyebrow before glancing down at the dead suit on the ground.

“Don’t think I could just throw that over my shoulder.” Steve quips and Tony lets out his own snicker. Steve looks back up at him and nods.

“I’ll hide the car and grab the coat; you work on finally explaining to me why I’m your backup.” Steve says, more like orders but Tony is willing to let it go and just nods at the man. Steve walks off and Tony glances into the trees towering over them and shivers slightly as flurries continue to come down.

He’s not a religious man but Sandy his “god sent” of a therapist says it helps some people to have hope in something. So, he sends up a silent prayer to the universe that wherever Pepper and Darcy are they are both ready to kick some ass.

***

Tony is once again grateful for Steve’s presence when it takes them half the time it would take him on his own to drag the suit to the edge of town. Steve takes a break and sends in his messages to Clint and Sharon while Tony decides to go the less conspicuous route and uses a pay phone for the first time in a decade.

“Pepper it’s me.” He starts and he sighs as he rests his injured head against the dirty glass. “Look, I’ve got apologies to make and not a lot of time. I’m so sorry I put you in this situation, put you in harm’s way.” Tony swallows the lump in his throat and roughly clears it.

“I’m also just going to apologize in advanced for anything else I’m probably going to do in the future. I love you…. I’ll see you again.” He starts to hang up the phone but suddenly draws it back.

“Also, it’s Christmastime and the rabbit’s too big.”

***

“Call me crazy.” Steve says as he huffs out a tired breath and gets a better grip on the rope. “But I’m still not understanding why anything about Extremis or the Mandarin would be here.”

“You might be on to something Cap, maybe he isn’t everything he appears to be.” Tony let out his own huff as he yanks the suit forward. He can feel Steve glancing at him and knows the man is smarter than he looks but thankfully Tony is able to distract him.

“Come on, think I’ve found a good hiding place.” Tony says and gestures to the house that rests on the edge of the small town. Tony takes a few steps forward but is stopped by the sudden increase of weight. He looks behind him to see Steve looking of all things confused.

“Tony, we’re not breaking in and squatting in a house. Let’s just go to the town I can see a bar.” Steve waves his arms towards the lights and Tony turns. Even if he squints his eyes and concentrates, he can’t see more then 10 feet in front of him.

“Okay number one, good super eye sight I’m going to have to remember that one.” Tony quips and Steve just waits. “Two, we are doing recon, gathering intel. We are basically undercover and I hate to break it to you Cap but your face was plastered all over the country years ago when you helped in New York. You can’t show your face anywhere and I can’t keep dragging this suit around. Our options are squatting or freezing.” Tony doesn’t wait for Steve to respond, just looks around until he finds an axe leaning up against the side of the garage. He walks over and weighs it in his hands for a second and gets one practice swing in before Steve walks past him. Tony stops and watches as Steve looks around and slowly puts his hand on the doorknob. He braces his other hand against the doorframe; it only takes a second and a pretty loud snap for the lock to break off and the door to open.

“See, was that so hard?” Tony says, grinning for the first time in a while.

“You’re an asshole.” Steve says with no heat behind it and it just makes Tony’s smile widen.

“Takes one to know one.”

***

_Pepper_

“I’m really starting to question the competence of police officers.” Clint mutters in Pepper’s ear as the officer continues to drone on about gathering more information and going through the procedure. Pepper tries not to react or turn her head in the direction where she knows Clint and Sharon are standing, both looking very convincing as a reporter and camera man. Sharon looking perfectly perky and gesturing behind her. The police officer finally closes his notebook and tells her they will call her with any information, Clint tries to quiet his snort. Pepper nods at the officer and slowly spins around, trying to look lost.

“Okay, Sharon says that we’ve got a few curious cops probably looking for a souvenir and some nosy reporters but no one credibly suspicious has tried to get on the scene. Clint whispers quietly and Pepper actually looks towards them for the first time, trying to figure out how Sharon said that since she had been talking about rescue crews scouting the waters for the last five minutes. But she focuses on the blonde and sees her wild gestures are actually quick and precise movements.

She’s speaking sign language.

Pepper bites her lip to keep from reacting, because that is clever. She then takes a deep breath and once again faces the burnt slabs of concrete, the last remnants of their home. She walks once again through the ruins to the cliff’s edge, just needing a moment to collect her thoughts. She takes a step and her foot bumps into something; she snaps her eyes open and manages to grab it in time before it falls into the ocean. I

t’s an Iron Man helmet.

She slowly stands and cradles the helmet in her hands, she goes to press it to her forehead when a faint beeping sound stops her. She turns the helmet around to find a red light blinking and doesn’t even think it through before putting on the helmet and waiting as it powers up.

She cries when she hears Tony’s voice.

A weight seems to be lifted off her shoulders and she even laughs when Tony finally admits that the bunny is too big. When this is all over, she plans to hold that one over him.

“Heads up.” Clint suddenly says and Pepper looks around before remembering she has to take the helmet off. She yanks it off and manages it to power it down before turning around to see Maya hesitantly entering the house.

“You two need to get out of here, we’ll follow behind you.” Sharon finally speaks outside of her anchor voice and it must mean that her and Clint are packing it up. Pepper takes a deep breath and lets the helmet go, watching it fall into the ocean. She turns and faces Maya before the woman could notice what she had just done. Covering her tracks was harder than she thought.

“Ms. Potts, I’m so sorry…” Maya starts out and Pepper doesn’t listen to her; knowing the woman’s fate she plans to make sure it doesn’t happen but it doesn’t stop her from feeling a flare of anger at what Maya would put her through. She lets the woman drone on a little as she scans the front yard, she can’t see Sharon and Clint anymore which means it’s time for them to go. If she wants to stay safe then she has to stay two steps ahead. She finally looks back at Maya and pulls the woman out of her quiet explanation.

“Your Maya Hansen?” Pepper asks and it halts Maya mid-sentence. She pauses for a second before nodding at Pepper.

“How did…” She starts to ask but Pepper cuts her off.

“Tony was looking into your past work; he was suspicious of something but he wasn’t sure what it was.” Pepper glances around one more time but doesn’t see anyone stand out in the crowd, which means it’s the perfect time to slip away.

“I don’t know what’s going on but I can tell it isn’t over, you and I have to get out of here.” Pepper says desperately. Thankfully Maya seems convinced enough because it only takes the woman a minute to think it over before she’s nodding her head and following Pepper through the news crews and back to her car. Pepper quickly unlocks it and grabs the door to the driver’s seat when she hears a clatter, she whips around to see Clint. Still dressed in his flannel and backwards baseball cap, noisily loading his “news van”

“Don’t damage the equipment!” Sharon lets out a faint shrill shriek and Clint rolls his eyes or at least fakes it to make brief eye contact with Pepper. Pepper wishes she knew sign language; she settles for eye contact and hopes that Clint can read her face.

She’s trusting him to get her through this.

***

_Tony_

Tony hisses as he yanks yet another piece of debris out of his arm and laments once again to himself how stupid a decision it was to crash his suit. He hears another clatter that distracts him enough to almost move a piece deeper into his arm and he bites his tongue before taking a deep breath and turning to see Steve. The man had been bopping around the shop, throwing out a comment here or there but now he stood in front of a pile of scrap metal that he definitely just knocked over; must have been an accident judging by his apologetic expression. Tony rolls his eyes and puts the tweezers down for a second to look at the man.

“Did anyone ever test you for ADHD? Because I’ve been close with it for years so I can tell when someone can’t keep still.” Tony says only half joking and the other half seriously wanting to test Steve. Steve opens his mouth to respond but his whole body goes still in a second and his head is whipping towards the garage door. He moves swiftly and when he passes Tony, he puts his finger to his lips for the man to be quiet. Steve positions himself behind the door and then looks at Tony, he motions for the man to go back to his arm and Tony gives one more glance at the door before slowly picking up the tweezers.

He sees him out of the corner of his eye.

“Freeze!” a child’s voice says and that stops Tony as he looks up to see a pipsqueak standing at the door, holding a potato gun. His eyes shoot to Steve for a second before going back to the kid.

“Don’t move.” The kid says trying his best to be menacing and Tony decides to play along for a few seconds, he puts the pliers down and slowly raises his hands.

“You got me.” He then looks at Steve again and grins. “Actually…”

Steve shuts the door and the kid spins wildly to point the potato gun at Steve only to gasp and almost drop it.

“I think we got you.”

Steve steps up and gently takes the gun out of the kid’s hands, the kid flails for a second but then gets a good look at Steve and his mouth falls open, Steve throws the gun to Tony.

“Nice potato gun, barrel’s a little long.” Tony says before aiming and shooting at a glass bottle, shattering it. He then throws the gun back at the kid who manages to catch it.

“Now you’re out of ammo.”

The kid blinks at both of them, eyes switching between the two of them until they finally land on Tony’s chest.

“That’s an electromagnet…” the kid says and Tony looks at Steve who also looks like he doesn’t know what to do. Tony sighs and steps out of the way of the suit, shining a light on it.

“Oh my god I knew it!” the kid shouts and points at Steve. “Your Captain America and that’s...” the kid’s voice peters out as his smile grows and his eyes widen in wonder. He approaches the Iron Man suit.

“You know you’re dead right?” The kid finally says as he passes both superheroes and hands Tony a newspaper, headlines blaring about his presumed death.

“Well, that worked.” Tony mutters as the kid goes up and starts messing with the suit.

“Look kid-“ Steve starts but the boy interrupts him.

“My name’s Harley.”

“Harley. Mr. Stark and I are on a very vital mission so we need you to forget you ever saw us here okay?” Steve is using his solider/leader voice and Tony can tell that’s already not going to work.

“Yeah, okay I get that but technically your mission is happening in my garage so...” Harley trails off and shrugs as he starts probing the Iron Man suit, Tony can’t help the snicker he lets out. Steve does a pretty good rendition of a bitch face and hits his shoulder.

“You know if I built these suits, I would have put in the uh…retro- “

“Retro-reflective panels?”

“To make him stealth mode.”

“That’s a good idea.”

Tony gets lost in thought for a second but Steve brings him out of it when he asks the kid another question.

“So…is anyone home right now?”

Harley just shrugs for a second

“My mom already left for work and my dad went to the 7-11 for scratchers.” He pauses and rubs his nose, looking down at the gauntlet hand. “He must have won because that was six years ago.”

A moment of silence fills the garage before Steve sighs out.

“Kid I’m sorry.”

Harley shrugs.

“It happens.”

“It shouldn’t.”

Harley actually looks up and starts getting that moony fan expression that most people get around Captain America so Tony interjects with a dramatic sigh.

“Okay so no one’s home, I’m recruiting you officially to help us kid. A laptop, a digital watch, a cellphone the pneumatic actuator from your bazooka over there, a map of town, a big spring and a tuna sandwich because Steve over here gets peckish.”

Steve rolls his eyes because he very well knows that they don’t need half of those things but they need to test the kid to see if he can listen to instructions. From the brief stuff Darcy had on this kid Tony knew that he was supposedly smart.

“What’s in it for me?”

“Salvation-“ Tony starts but Steve interrupts.

“What’s his name?”

Harley’s gaze whips to Steve.

“Who?”

“The kid who bullies you.”

Tony can feel some kind of dormant paternal protective instinct come out at the idea of this tiny, curious kid getting hurt.

_Nope don’t like that, don’t like that at all._

“I got something, could cover your ass if someone tries to mess with you again.” Tony says, once again gaining Harley’s attention. “Deal?”

Harley looks at him strategically for a second before nodding his head.

“Cool, go get the stuff kid, we don’t have all night.”

Harley listens and runs over to a corner of the garage, probably to look for the spring.

“It’s weird right?” Steve asks and Tony looks over to him to see Steve staring at Harley.

“Seeing yourself in someone.” Steve looks like he’s reminiscing about something and it makes Tony look back at Harley. He’s not going to tell Steve that he’s right but he could see that kid being something big someday with a little help.

“Hey, if you wanna break the news to Pepper and Sharon that we somehow met our lovechild on our great Tennessee adventure then that’s your choice Cap.” Tony jokes and it actually makes him smile when Steve shakes his head and chuckles.

***

“Maybe we should have gotten you something better than a baseball cap because don’t take this the wrong way Rogers, I am in a happily committed relationship. But pretty sure they can see your jawline from space.” Tony quips as the three of them move through the semi crowded streets. Tony looks almost unrecognizable in the thick winter clothes but Steve’s big shoulders could probably be easily picked out of a crowd, what a baseball cap was supposed to do as a disguise Tony didn’t know.

Steve looks like he wants to say something back if it weren’t for the fact that he was hunched over himself with his head down. Tony just imagines the quippy response.

“I didn’t have anything that would fit him!” Harley says almost indignantly and Tony brushes the words off as they walk towards the memorial.

“When can we talk about New York?” Harley suddenly says and it makes both men freeze in place. Tony immediately shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath; he holds it and then slowly lets it out. He will never admit this to anyone but Sandy; yoga breaths work.

“Never.” Tony states and looks ahead to see the memorial they were looking for, he looks back at Roger who managed to shake out of his PTSD stupor and nudges his shoulder for them to walk forward.

Both of them only get a few steps when they both freeze again as they get a good look at the ruins, candles and handmade crosses litter the ground, each one to mark a shadow on the wall that once was a person.

Reading about devastating explosion and seeing the end results are two very different things.

Tony takes a deep therapy approved breath and walks forward.

***

_Steve_

It looks like the ruins that he remembers seeing in the war, the fight in New York didn’t look like that. The aliens and shiny futuristic buildings made the whole thing look like something off a sci fi novel he and Bucky use to read. This, this is a graveyard and it shakes Steve down to the core. For the first time since Tony called him babbling about a biological terrorist, he’s starting to realize the true impact of why Tony was so determined to risk everything.

“What’s the official story here? What happened?” Tony says in a semi shaky voice as he walks closer to the memorial. Steve finally takes a steadying breath and walks closer to see the flowers and pictures for the lost people while Harley explains in the background.

“I guess this guy named Chad David used to live roundabouts. He won a bunch of medals in the army. And one day, folks said he went crazy and made, you know, a bomb. Then he blew himself up, right here.”

It seems so simple but also like something’s missing, Steve and Tony both slowly walk around the wall, tracing the images that the people left behind. The outlines are like nothing Steve has ever seen before and he knows instantly that nothing normal caused this explosion.

“Six people died, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Including Chad Davis.”

“Yeah.”

Steve is already shaking his head and turning to meet Tony’s gaze.

“Only five shadows.” Steve mutters and Tony nods his head. Steve turns back to look at the shadows closer while Tony goes and sits next to Harley.

“You know what this crater reminds me of? That giant wormhole in, um, in New York.” Harley starts to say and the hairs on the back of Steve’s neck stands up, the tension instantly growing in the air. He turns to see Tony already closing his eyes and breathing deeply, the man practically curling into himself. Steve may still be learning about all the bells and whistles of mental health in the 21st century but he doesn’t have to be a genius to tell that Tony having a panic attack is going to get them nowhere.

“Kid!” He barks and tries to be as gentle as he can but Harley still jumps a little and his gaze whips to Steve.

“We’re not going to talk about that.” He says firmly and tries to look apologetic; it must work because Harley gulps a little and looks down at the ground. Steve looks over at Tony who is breathing steadily and giving him a thankful look. He nods in understanding and Tony shakes it off, turning back to Harley.

“Okay, where were we? The guy who died. Relatives? Mom? Mrs. Davis, where is she?” Tony asks and Harley sniffles a little before turning and pointing towards the bar across the street.

“Where she always is.”

Tony nods and pats Harley on the shoulder before getting up to walk, Steve starts to follow him but Tony is suddenly pivoting and holding his hands out.

“Yeah, you can’t go in. Like I said everyone knows your face.” Tony says and honestly, Steve has a problem with that.

“Tony you are also pretty famous.” Steve tries to fight but Tony is already shaking his head.

“I got a 50/50 chance of about a 10-minute gap where no one recognizes me because I am not plastered in history textbooks all over the country.” Tony stops and rummages in his pocket until he digs up the com that Steve have given him and shoves it in his ear.

“Look, stay with the kid and play backup, I’ll keep you updated and let you know when the bad guys descend on the unsuspecting small town.” Tony half jokes and Steve looks at the determination in the man’s eyes and lets out a slightly irritated breath before conceding.

“Alright, but your com better be on, you called me for backup so use me as backup.” Steve warns and ignores Tony when he playfully rolls his eyes at him. With a jaunty salute Tony turns and starts walking towards the bar. Steve stands there for a second feeling useless until he hears a noise and looks down to see Harley now standing beside him.

“So, what do we do now?” Harley asks.

***

Turns out the kid was a lot like Tony, at least he talked fast like him as nonstop, rapid fire questions about everything seemed to spill out of his mouth.

“Is your shield indestructible?”

“No but I haven’t found anything that could break it yet.”

“Is the Hulk 50 feet tall?”

“More like 20 I guess.”

“Is Thor really a god?”

“As far as I know.”

Steve actually finds himself getting amused by the babble as they both wait across the street, Steve splitting his time between Harley’s question and the mummers of Tony’s conversation in the bar.

“What do- “

But Steve stops Harley with a hand on the kids shoulder as he stands up straight, things got a whole lot quieter on Tony’s end and looking in the bar window a crowd now stands up, looking like the beginnings of a fight. Before he has time to ask Tony what’s going on Tony is already answering him.

“Hey Cap, the crazies are about to come to town, pretty sure a henchman should be coming in around the corner.” Tony whispers, probably trying to be subtle. Steve starts scanning the streets immediately and his eyes zero in on a man with a shaved head, sitting his car. Steve narrows his eyes, trying to pinpoint where he had seen the man before. The man turns his eyes and Steve notices the unnatural orange glow.

“Yeah, found him. Pretty sure it’s one of the guys from the California explosion.” Steve tells Tony. He can hear Tony sigh before he answers.

“Well no rest for the wicked.”

Sudden screams come from the bar and people start running out, Steve shoves Harley behind a telephone pole and runs towards the parked car.

Time to go to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a few people in the comments totally called out Nick being in SHIELD and I literally so excited that people were catching on. In the next few chapters I hope to get him as well as the rest of the Lewis family settles and prepared for what is to come.
> 
> Next chapter we get the second part of Thor Dark World, so that will wrap up that movie. Get ready for more Darcy and Loki sass as well as a lot of important conversations and choices!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and are excited for more!


	5. Colored Crimson In My Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! Get ready for continued Darcy and Loki sass as we get through the rest of Dark World and get Darcy ready for her next adventure!
> 
> Also I always planned in the Black Panther playing a vital part in the story and will be introducing him in the next multi-chaptered part of this series. I hope I can do justice to the character Chadwick Boseman brought to life.

“ _All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” – JRR Tolkien_

_Holly_

Holly finds herself trying to decide between being beyond pissed off or insurmountably worried and quite frankly it was becoming exhausting. She finds herself wishing that Bruce hadn’t left with Natasha and Maria; she knows how to referee her kids, at least she thought she did. Yet here she stands with one daughter time traveling, the other daughter completely in the dark and a son who is apparently a secret agent, so maybe she doesn’t know her kids as well as she thought she did.

It’s also starting to feel like her whole life is built on lies which she knows is very overdramatic and not what they need right now but it’s what she feels.

Maggie is probably feeling the same thing, judging by the hardened look on her face as she burns holes in the back of her brother’s head with her stare. It is possible that Nick is ignoring both of them as he flits between the computer monitors and sets up tech gadgets that Holly can only guess the purpose of.

“Was Hannah alive? Is she even real?” Maggie suddenly asks, making Holly jump in surprise at the sound of her voice after the half hour of silence. Nick actually pauses from his work to give his sister a puzzling look.

“Yes, Hannah is real.” Nick says and Holly doesn’t blame Maggie for the angry sigh she lets out since Nick’s tone is condescending.

“Just making sure since you know, secrets seem to be in endless supply here.” Maggie says, her voice has an icy tone that’s just as sharp as her glare.

“I mean, my sister is keeping stuff from me so it shouldn’t surprise me that my brother is a secret agent that hacks stuff for a living. I bet Darcy’s also an agent, maybe our whole life is just a cover up and my entire family is secret agents. Are you ripping off the spy kids franchise?” Maggie actually seems like she’s seriously asking for an answer but Nick huffs out a laugh before Holly can even open her mouth.

“Darcy isn’t a spy; she chooses to hang around adrenaline junkies with death wishes.” Nick almost spits out before turning away from them. Holly realizes two things in that moment, one if she doesn’t try to intervene soon Maggie may actually punch her brother in the face and two, a lot of things suddenly make a lot more sense about Nicholas Lewis. She gets up from the chair she had been sitting in and manages to squeeze Maggie’s shoulder and get her attention. She gives her a look and Maggie opens her mouth to argue but Holly keeps the mom gaze on her and a moment later Maggie huffs and crosses her arms but stays silent. Holly looks to Nick who has gone back to ignoring them, even putting on a headset to block them out, but Holly still approaches him and stands quietly next to him.

She isn’t sure about a lot of things lately but the one thing she knows is that all her kids stand no chance against the mom gaze.

It takes a minute for Nick to crack but eventually his shoulders slump a little and he pulls off the headset, managing to wipe the irritated look off his face in the process.

“What do you need.” He manages to say through gritted teeth and Holly ignores for now. He’s acting rude and aggressive but she knows Nick is just hurt. She also knows that he’ll apologize later. 

“Why did you do it?”

Nick blinks at her in surprise.

“Why did I join SHIELD?” He says sounding more confused than anything. Holly opens her mouth then pauses because she really wants to know the answer to that too but it’s better to climb one mountain at a time.

“Right now, I want to focus on the fact that you kept secrets from us.” Holly starts and raises her finger in warning when Nick opens his mouth to respond. She quickly talks over him before he gets the chance.

“It’s not hypocritical because at some point Nick Fury found out that you were Darcy’s brother sometime over the past two years. There was a point that you knew and we knew and you should have just come home and told us instead of running away.” Holly says nearly tripping over her words as she rushes to get them out. She knows Nick isn’t going to hold out for much longer.

“It’s a secret organization.” Nick starts to mutter but Holly is already shaking her head.

“Darcy either knows or is friends with all the top people of SHIELD, it stopped being a need to know bases a while ago.”

Nick is grinding his teeth and his gaze swings over Holly’s shoulder; he suddenly gestures to Maggie who is still glaring from her chair.

“Maggie still doesn’t know and Darcy never told me so why should I have spilled my secret?”

Holly sets her hands on Nick’s raised shoulders and tries to rub them soothingly, she softens her tone switching from bad cop to good cop instantly.

“Darcy was going to tell you, both of you but something happened, things got out of control so she couldn’t. And you left before she could tell you anything. In the beginning she just wanted to keep us all safe- "

“WELL WHAT DO YOU THINK I’VE BEEN DOING THE PAST DECADE!?”

Nick is yelling, he throws Holly’s hands off him and takes a step back, breathing heavily and it down right shocks both Lewis women. Nick wasn’t one for big outbursts, his was a quiet anger, so to see him lose control like this was more baffling then finding out he was a secret agent. Holly doesn’t have to turn around to feel Maggie at her back, both of them staring at Nick. The young man takes a second to get his breath under control and almost seems to choke on the air. His gaze settles down on the ground, hiding his emotions.

“I have to protect us; I have to because we can’t lose anyone again. When dad died...” Nick peters off for a second as he takes a shaky breath. “When he died it killed all of us so I have to make sure we don’t lose another person. I can protect you guys, protect people this way.” Nick finally looks up and his eyes do look shiny but Holly doesn’t move to comfort him, this should have happened years ago.

“I’ve seen what happens with superheroes, what they do every day. They risk their lives and everyone who cares about them has to wait until one day they don’t come home. Or they get dragged into it, they get hurt or killed so, I can’t- Darcy she- we-…. If we get close to them it’s only going to hurt later.”

No one speaks for a minute as all three listen to Nick slowly gain control of his emotions. He wipes his eyes and watches almost fearfully as his mother approaches him, he does allow her to cradle his face and wipe the rest of his tears away.

“I use to think that too. Lock up everything so I can’t get hurt again. But you know what changed my mind?” Nick doesn’t answer but he also doesn’t look away. “I saw you with Hannah who- wait is Hannah an agent?” Holly suddenly asks and it makes Nick laugh.

“No, I had an undercover at her campus, I was allowed to tell her once we got serious.” Nick answers and Holly’s smile grows bigger.

“See, you let someone in, and someone normal chose to stay with you even with your big scary secret. If she’s worth it don’t you think these people are too?”

Silence once more envelops the room as they all wait and Nick finally lets out a tired sigh, letting his mother pull him into her arms.

“Let’s find your sister and make sure the world doesn’t go to shit, then we are sitting down and talking about all this.” Holly’s tone doesn’t allow room for argument. It gets a slight laugh out of Maggie and Nick is clearly fighting a smile but he nods his head and moves back over to his computers.

Holly lets out an exhausted sigh and closes her eyes for a second. Wherever Darcy is, she hopes it’s less stressful then this situation.

***

_Darcy_

“Ta-da!” Loki has the nerve to shout as the ship literally crashes in the swampy looking space desert. If Darcy wasn’t so busy holding on for dear life, she would sock him in the jaw. Loki manages to steady the ship and Darcy takes a few steadying breath s as she glares at the Norse god. The trickster just smirks at her and honestly at some point he is definitely getting cold clocked. She turns to Jane who has settled down again into an uneasy sleep and Darcy scoots closer to her. She rubs Jane’s arms to get some warmth into them and help keep the women awake. Jane mummers her approval and scoots closer to her. Darcy continues the motion as the four of them make their way through the alien planet. It’s almost too quiet as they pass what could only be described as the ruins of a war, alien space ships litter the ground, smashed into pieces and the sight makes a chill climb up Darcy’s spine.

She feels something drop on her shoulders and jumps only to turn and see Thor draping a blanket over her shoulders. She smiles at the muscly god and he smiles back before crouching by Jane and tucking her in, lovingly petting her hair.

“She’ll make it through this.” Darcy found herself saying, feeling her heart ache at the sad look Thor gave Jane. He did manage to look up and give Darcy a pained smile before looking back to Jane. Darcy sees the devotion in his eyes and tries to look away only to meet the knowing eyes of Loki. His gaze is searching, Darcy finds herself snapping her head back in the direction of the display the lovebirds are giving in Jane’s weakened state.

“Man, even in life threatening situations you two still manage to be sappy as fuck.” Darcy says jokingly and Thor actually lets out a light chuckle.

“I know enough earth language now to know you gave me both a compliment and an insult.” Thor quips back and it makes Darcy let out a loud laugh. Loki rolls his eyes and Darcy rolls hers right back.

“I do love her though.” Thor continues and Darcy focuses back on the couple. Thor is looking forlorn now as he pushes Jane’s hair back gently.

“I just wish I had more time with her.” Thor says and Darcy just wants to wrap the big guy up in a hug but the mood feels off so she settles for patting his shoulder.

“She’s going to get through this big guy, Jane’s made of tough stuff.”

Thor shakes his head.

“No, I know my Jane and she will survive this, I was referring to the fact that I cannot stay with her.” Thor pauses and looks out at the desert landscape. “For so long all I craved was battle and the throne but now…now all I want is peace and to be with Jane for as long as I can.”

The moment is quiet, apparently Loki doesn’t even know what to say when his brother is in the vulnerable state, he’s in.

“I mean, Thor you could have that.” Darcy starts.

“I can’t leave my kingdom.”

“Well…. you won’t.” Thor looks up at Darcy with a hard look and she puts up placating hands.

“Easy big guy, I know it’s a tense moment but even I can do basic math. You guys potentially live forever or at least thousands of years. Us humans get a hundred if we’re lucky. So…you could. Stay with Jane, for the rest of her life, do the whole marriage shebang and you would only be leaving your centuries old kingdom for what? Sixty- or seventy-years tops? That’s gotta be like a week for you guys in god years.” Darcy stops and shrugs.

Thor stares at her for a second, his face an impassive stone, she can’t tell what he’s thinking but the fact that he’s not going back to the emo I can’t be with my girlfriend pout was a good thing. Darcy settled back next to Jane and looks out over the alien planet, which literally looks like someone just took a green filter to a Star Wars movie.

“What I could do with the power that flows through those veins.”

“It would consume you.”

Darcy sighs and tunes Thor/Loki brother power hour out until suddenly Loki is yelling and Thor is slamming him against the ship, his first raised.

“What the fuck?” Darcy yelps in surprise as she jumps away from Jane and launches herself at Thor trying with all her might to pull back his fist.

It does absolutely nothing.

“Can you two chill for like two seconds? We don’t have time for this!” Darcy yells as she jumps down from dangling off Thor’s arm and tries to wedge herself between the two. She’s in the middle of trying to squeeze between the metal armor when Thor suddenly starts to chuckle and Loki snickers. She freezes and steps back as the two brothers separate on their own. Looking at each other with a weird fondness that only a sibling could know.

“I wish I could trust you.” Thor mummers before stepping back to Jane. Darcy just stands there for a second, looking between the two and gawking.

“Is that how you two communicate on a basic level? No wonder your family has so many flipping issues!”

Loki has the gall to chuckle at her before muttering something under her breath making Darcy narrow her eyes at him.

“What.” Darcy says indignantly while crossing her arms. Loki takes one look at her and scoffs.

“It’s none of your concern time traveler.”

Darcy stops breathing.

“What did you call me?” She manages to croak out but Loki just stares at her evenly.

“I said its none of your concern mortal.”

“That is not what you said.”

“Then what did I say?” Loki says challengingly, goading Darcy on to rise to his bait and admit her big secret to the narcissistic Norse fuck boy. She takes a shaky breath and shakes her head.

“Nothing. You said nothing.”

She just might have a few more problems to deal with now.

***

_“Jane?”_

_“Malekith….”_

_***_

They approach the cliffside with Darcy unwillingly sticking to Loki’s side like glue, she’s not sure it could be called guard duty if the prisoner could lay her out in less than five seconds. They spot the pale space elf looking fuglier then usual after getting burnt by Thor’s lightening. They are surrounded on all sides by crumbling hills and sandy wind, a real Mexican standoff in the middle of a desert valley. She tightens her grip on Loki’s arm as Thor unlocks his handcuffs and Darcy remembers the words Loki had said.

_Trust my rage._

It’s no surprise to her when Loki pulls out the knife, even if she hadn’t known future details, it turns out Loki is predictable. Doesn’t stop the panic shout from Jane, even if it is their plan it takes Darcy a second to remember her part. She turns from where Thor is crashing down the hill and lets out a yell as she tries to shove Loki like the “stupid human” she is. He slaps her across the face and sends her sprawling to the ground, he put a little too much showmanship into it as it sends her head spinning for a second. By the time she manages to stand up the brothers are already at the bottom of the valley with Jane following close behind them.

“I fucking hate this plan.” Darcy mutters before running full tilt down the unsteady hill.

“All I ever wanted was you and Odin, dead at my feet.” Loki proclaims loud and dramatically making Darcy roll her eyes at the pizzazz of it all. She watches as Thor calls for Mjolnir, desperately reaching for it only for Loki to draw a knife with one quick swipe Thor’s hand is gone and Darcy finds herself screaming at the shock of the missing appendage. Loki grabs up Jane and Darcy is sent scrambling, only to be held frozen mid position by Loki’s magic.

“I am Loki of Jotunheim and I bring you a gift.”

He throws Jane to the ground and Darcy growls as she tries her best to claw at the invisible bonds holding her back. She really hates this plan.

“I ask only one thing in return…a good seat from which to watch Asgard burn!”

_Okay dude enough with the theatrics Jesus Christ!_

Darcy continues her futile struggle as knockoff two-face casually strolls around their group, when he gets to her, he leans closer in Darcy’s face and there’s only one thing she can do.

She hocks the biggest loogie right in his burnt alien trash face.

He doesn’t move, just continues to stare at her as he wipes away her spit before he moves to Thor. He kicks Thor until the god faces him and has a front row seat as Jane is slowly lifted off the ground. Darcy’s breath shutters as she watches her best friend helplessly. Jane looks as if her soul is getting sucked out of her body, as if she’s being crucified in the sky. The aether leaks out of her skin and it is the most unnatural creepy thing Darcy has seen. She waits, tensing her muscles for the moment when she’ll be dropped back into gravity.

“Loki! Now!” Thor yells and Loki stretches out both hands to unbind Darcy and reveal the illusion of Thor’s chopped hand. Mjolnir flies to Thor in seconds and Darcy drops to the ground in a run, managing to catch herself when she almost trips and grabs Jane just as Loki reaches and covers them.

The lightning swarms the cluster of darkness and seems to enter it’s veins like a poison, it builds and builds until the aether seems to explode in one big red firework. Dark smoke envelops all of them and Darcy curls closer to Jane, making both of them duck their heads. She waits until the burning smell and electricity fizzles out of the air before slowly raising her head and this next part is something, she was anticipating but really really hoping wasn’t true.

Future Pepper and Future Clint had told her several times the stones were virtually indestructible, you couldn’t just smash them and call it a day. Darcy had felt the ruby red shards fall to the ground and had been praying that the universe may throw her a bone just this once.

The universe did not.

She holds back a whimper and a groan as she watches the spiky shards of broken stone slowly float off the ground; in seconds they were once again looking like angry airborne swamp water. Darcy opens her mouth, because sometimes yelling at the situation does help, but not this time because it only takes seconds for Malekith to open his arms and allow the stone to swarm into his body. He opens his eyes and Darcy doesn’t need to be a scientist to know things just got seriously bad.

“We gotta go!” Darcy frantically whispers as she elbows Loki slightly and pulls Jane up. The trickster looks offended for two seconds before Malekith waves his scary ghoul entourage upon them. He and Thor face the horde while Darcy propels her and Jane as far as she can get them and ends up behind a huge looking rock. They both collapse to catch their breath and Darcy tries to take Jane’s hand and look the woman over but she is swatted away.

“I’m fine!” Jane exclaims. She sort of is, she looks exhausted but her eyes are clear and free of magic stone goo. Darcy nods and Jane takes another deep breath.

“So, the boys are okay right? We get back to earth?” Jane says as she weakly sits up and is already looking around for a way home. Darcy opens her mouth to reply but then stops as she goes over everything in her head.

“Darcy?”

Darcy puts her hand up to halt Jane and she turns to look out from their “hiding place” to watch the two brothers fight. She stares at Loki, thinks of what he’s done, what he will do. She also thinks over the fact that he had figured her out, he knew she time traveled and yet he had done nothing about it. Maybe Thor was right, that somewhere in that twisted cold dead heart Loki had in his chest there was some kind of redemption arc waiting to happen. Darcy bites her lip as she watches Thor grab Loki out of the sky, he then storms off and obviously picks the biggest, meanest bad guy to fight. She knows what she should do she just really doesn’t want to do it.

“Jane. Please just trust me on this.” Darcy states and looks at Jane, only to get a confused look from the woman. Darcy stands up and waits, she waits while Thor’s hammer is deflected, she waits as Loki wins a knife fight against four bad guys, she has one shot at this and the second Loki starts walking over to Thor, Darcy starts running.

“Darcy!” Jane yells but the sound quickly gets sucked up into the wind and Darcy would have ignored it anyway.

If you want someone to change sometimes you have to give them a shove in the right direction.

The alien spasms over Thor as the spear enters his body and Loki just stands their like an idiot.

The alien henchman turns around and Loki looks at him with acceptance on his face.

The goon grabs Loki’s arm and Darcy jumps, grabbing Loki and surprising both of them. She uses her momentum and wildly swaying limbs to drag Loki down to the ground. Loki and her fall and he looks at her in shock before they both hear a growling and look above to see the big horned asshole snarling down at them. Darcy closes her eyes for a second until she hears a faint beeping and all four of them look down to see the alien grenade attached to the monster. He turns back to them and Darcy hears the satisfaction in Loki’s voice as he says it.

“See you in hell monster.”

The grenade explodes and swirling tunnels of fire swallows the creature and sends him burning to ash and scattering him across the universe.

Thor and Jane are already running towards them, Thor picks Darcy up as if she were no lighter than a baby kitten and hands her off to a frantic Jane before picking up Loki.

“What the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed!”

“But I wasn’t! and he wasn’t either!” Darcy says in an upbeat way that just gets her a smack on the arm.

“Why did you save me?” Loki asks and Darcy looks towards the two gods, Thor looking grateful but Loki looking like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Darcy sighs knowing that Jane is going to be mad at her half-baked plan and Thor is going to be mad about how much she kept from him.

“You were right, I’m guessing prison just gave you a lot of time to think and you are just enough of a smartass to figure out that I was a time traveler. I saw the future and I know what happens.”

Thor looks shocked and Loki’s gaze turns calculating as he waits for her to go on.

“You were about to die.” Thor squeezes Loki’s arm. “But not really.” Thor drops Loki’s arm at Darcy’s words.

“I don’t know if you faked your death or really did see the light at the end of the tunnel but the point is, this ends with you taking over Asgard's throne. Which is not the worst thing until the time comes and Asgard isn’t ready for the actual worst thing.”

Both brothers silently stare at Darcy, from the look on their faces she can tell they already know what she’s about to say.

“We talked endlessly about Ragnarök and we’re almost 100% it’s inevitable.” Darcy announces gravely and gives the brothers a moment as both lose their breath in actual fear.

“So, while I was behind that rock watching the two of you fight I kind of figured out that to get through it you don’t just need muscles, you’re going to need brains. Asgard needs your whole family to save your people from the shit that’s gonna hit them.”

“What are you suggesting?” Loki says with skepticism in his tone.

“Ask Thor and Frigga to I don’t know plead your case, start to get back on your dad’s good side.” Loki looks as if that idea disgusts him greatly but Darcy has something that may sell him on it.

“It may help if you’re the only son there.” Darcy says and turns to Thor while grabbing Jane’s hand. “Because Asgard is going to need backup and Earth is going to need Thor…. also, I’m pretty sure it’s what both you and Jane want.” Darcy finishes and pushes Jane forward a bit. Thor and Jane have a moment to soulfully stare into each other’s eyes and Darcy rolls hers only to land on Loki. Who looks like he actually might be considering the plan.

“One condition.” He finally says, making Jane and Thor snap out of their daze. Darcy crosses her arms and meets his piercing stare.

“Name it.”

“I wish to know what I am giving up; the elves are on the move now but I will return to Asgard if Thor agrees to come back to plead my case and you come back to tell me all you know.”

That….is a pretty hard bargain, it’s a lot of dangerous information to give to a semi psychopath.

“Darcy shall not set foot on Asgard until our mother deems you well enough to hear her knowledge.” Thor suddenly chimes in and the glare that Loki throws at him is peak annoyed younger sibling. Darcy finds herself fighting a grin as she nods.

“Honestly Frigga seems like the sanest out of all of you and could probably kill someone with a paperclip so I can agree to that.”

Thor actually smiles and Loki rolls his eyes before sighing and dramatically holding his hands up. In a second, manacles and a chain connecting them are on his wrist.

“Will these suffice?” He says and Darcy cannot wait to get away from this drama queen.

“Just get your ass back on the ship and go apologize to your mother.” Darcy finally says and Thor seems to agree as he calls Mjolnir to fly Loki back to the ship.

Darcy feels the worry finally leave her gut before she jumps as her arms is suddenly gripped very tightly. She looks at Jane who looks like she’s about to throw up.

“How do we get back to Earth? Malekith is heading there now!”

Oh…right. Darcy claps her hands together before looking left and right until she spots the cave and gestures for Jane to follow her.

“We gotta wait for Thor to get back but it’s pretty simple, it’s even involves a cellphone where you can choose if you want to call Selvig or Bruce, at least I’m pretty sure Bruce and the rest of them have to be in London by now.

“Wait what? Darcy what are you talking about? Why would Bruce be in London?”

***

_Bruce_

Bruce takes another calming breath and tries to find as much peace as he can in a tiny London flat that was filled with SHIELD agents including one very nervous, very talkative one. Selvig wasn’t much help as he had been pretty out of it ever since the Battle of New York and it took the unwavering patience of Natasha Romanov to continuously corral the man in the right direction.

“Explain it to me one more time.” Bruce says, turning to Agent Boothby and Maria Hill. His cellphone chooses that moment to ring and he picks it up fast, hoping it’s Tony or Pepper, reassuring him that they are both okay. It is neither of them and his eyebrows go up as the name Jane Foster flashes on the screen.

“That’s not possible.” Bruce mutters as he picks up the phone. “Jane?”

“Bruce! Thank god, Darcy you were right.”

“Wait wait, where are you? How are you calling me? Aren’t you galaxies away?”

“That is an excellent point and we should really stick a pin in that and discuss it later because right now we have a situation.”

Bruce looks up at the room to find almost everyone’s attention on him and he rolls his eyes, already exhausted from all of this.

“I’ve been told it’s another invasion, I’m going to need someone to explain it to me in terms I can understand.”

Jane started babbling out an explanation.

A half hour later the room was buzzing with a different kind of energy then before as Jane, Thor and Darcy spilled through the door covered in blood, dirt and flowing clothing. Bruce stands up and Darcy to his immense shock walks straight to him and gives him a hug. He sees a few people in the room holding their breath and checking him over but he just takes a calming breath and slowly hugs Darcy back.

“You’re going to explain this all to your mother.” Bruce says and Darcy lets out a panicked laugh that makes Bruce hold her tighter for a second longer before they separate.

“On my to-do list.” She smirks.

***

_Darcy_

“Erik?”

“Jane! You’ve been to Asgard!”

“Where are your pants?”

“Uh, he says it helps him think.”

“Dr. Foster.” Natasha says gaining their attention. “You want to tell us what we’re dealing with.”

All eyes in the room are now on Jane and she looks like General Leia in the way she stands as tall as she can and begins to lecture a roomful of trained agents about the second (or third?) alien invasion that is about to happen in their lifetime.

“Right now, our biggest concern is getting the tech to remove Malekith off earth and evacuating the city. Anyone that knows anything about gravimetric anomalies is on my team. Everyone else I suggest getting the government involved.”

Everyone murmurs and nods in agreement before Hill steps up and lets her voice boom around the room.

“Alright you heard her, I want all available feet on the ground, Boothby I need you to get into the government to get official clearance and evacuation orders now. Romanov?” Hill says, turning to the red head as people started to move around the room. Natasha looks over everyone before turning to Maria.

“Right. Move out.”

***

Darcy lets out a huge yawn as she and Ian lug the equipment through the cold and foggy morning. At this point she was running on adrenaline and the three espresso shots she chugged down. They get waved through the barricades by another SHIELD agent and Darcy can’t help but be impressed by how fast the agents managed to take over and evacuate the city. She shakes her head a little to wake herself up a bit more and then gets a better grip on the equipment in her hands.

“Okay, we have to hammer them in all around the site and then Jane and Erik will activate them. Bruce should already be there” Darcy was reviewing for the benefit of both of them only to look over and see Ian giving the equipment an incredulous look.

“Are these things taped together?”

“Do you even know what these things do?”

Ian looks over to her waiting for an answer that will never come.

“Neither do I but Bruce and Jane have PHD’s so they work, duct tape or no duct tape.”

She then adjusts the heavy equipment, getting it into a better grip and picks up her speed. When she walks through the archway, she sees Bruce in the empty courtyard, pacing and framing the zone with his hands.

“Bruce.” She calls and he looks up to wave them over. Darcy moves yet again faster causing Ian to almost trip and drop the equipment. It breaks the tension and Darcy lets out a laugh as Ian apologizes profusely to the calm scientist. They plant the first pole; Bruce holds the machine steady while Ian starts to hammer it in.

Darcy can already feel the wind change and she swears theirs an electric metal smell to the air that is strange but familiar to her at the same time.

She turns and although the ship is cloaked, she remembers what an invisible metal structure looks like from her jaunt across the rainbow bridge. She can see the rushing water and hear the engine rumbling as the ship starts to carve its way into the earth right towards them. She blinks and it appears in all its pointy black metal glory finally gaining Ian and Bruce’s attention as it reaches land.

“Holy…shit.” Darcy mutters right before Bruce and Ian pull her away and they start to run as the ship breaks through the brick pathways of the courtyard.

“911! Emergency the aliens have landed!” Darcy yells out and manages to attract the attention of all the nearby agents, a few run by them guns drawn and Darcy tries not to roll her eyes at their basic but useless first instinct to shoot at anything.

Someone seems to drop out of the sky and land in front of them stopping them in their tracks, Darcy squeals and Ian flails trying to catch himself. They all breathe a sigh of relief when they see the red hair and realize it’s Natasha. Darcy briefly looks up and finds that Nat had been watching them the whole time from the roof.

“Behind here.” Is all Natasha says before sweeping the three of them behind the buildings stone pillars and draws her own weapon. The noise just peter out as the ship picks its spot and plants itself into the lawn, looking like some new age skyscraper with a bunch of SHIELD agents surrounding it. Slowly the ship’s panels slide open and the stony face of Malekith strolls out followed by his creepy masked army. The SHIELD agents raise their weapons; the aliens on Malekith’s signal raise theirs while Natasha whispers into her com.

“Time to make an entrance big guy.”

A roar is heard and soon Thor comes leaping into the courtyard to stand in front and defend the scattered agents.

“You needn’t have come so far Asgardian; death would’ve come to you soon enough.”

Despite the seriousness of the situation Darcy can’t help but roll her eyes because honestly, she’s only heard one or two of them but she can’t stand villains monologuing. It’s dramatic enough that one of them is wearing a cape in this standoff.

The aether suddenly seeps out of Malekith and whips towards Thor and the situation becomes a lot more serious. Natasha whispers into her communicator again.

***

_Jane_

“Not sure how long ground control can take it.”

Jane blows a lock of hair out of her face and huffs a stressed-out sigh as she tries to work even faster. She could do without the nudging right now.

“We’re running out of time.” Erik suddenly says as he looks out down below at the battle in the courtyard. She doesn’t look at it, knowing it would distract her and if she has any chance of helping Thor then she has to stay focused on the task at hand.

“Are you sure about this? These devices were made to detect anomalies.” Erik nervously asked her but once again Jane ignores him. It was science, it was her invention and the day that Thor crashed into her life changed everything, that was the day that she found out that her gut feelings were usually right.

She had to believe this would work.

A loud crash forces her to look down only to see Thor go flying across the lawn as dark tentacles seemed to almost rip through him, breaking through his lightening as if it were a paper party streamer. Her stomach leaps in fear and she hopes the machine will work because she is out of time.

***

_Bruce_

Bruce is simultaneously trying to help install a conductor while taking yoga breaths because the world is currently exploding around him and he can hear the rumblings of the other guy in his head. He closes his eyes for a brief second only to feel a hand on his shoulder, his eyes snap open and he looks over to see Darcy beside him with a worried look on her face.

He calms down.

It’s not only because she looks so much like her mother in this moment, it’s also because Darcy trusts him to be here, to help, to not lose control. He takes a deep breath and nods.

He can’t let her down.

***

_Darcy_

She watches as Bruce and Ian finally get the conductor steady before she flips Jane a thumbs up to hit the switch. She grips her phone tighter as she hears Erik say they have seven minutes. Only to hear Jane’s determined tone and thanks the gods once again for making Jane so stubborn.

“We’re good, get clear.” Darcy says and Natasha nods as the four of them make their way to the edge of the courtyard. Darcy slams against the stone pillar as she tries to keep her phone from falling on the ground and reminds herself to get her own communicator.

“You might wanna hold onto something.”

That’s the only warning they get before a blue pulse emits from the pole and pulses through the air, as soon as it hits the alien shoulders dozens of them disappear out of thin air. Darcy gasps in delight and she can hear relieved breaths behind her.

“That is awesome! How did you do that?”

Jane starts to explain her science jargon but Darcy quickly gets distracted by a more pressing matter.

“Oh! Get the guy with the sword!”

That’s the last thing Darcy is able to say before she feels something grab her up and then she blinks and she’s in a completely different place.

The four of them look around in confusion for a second with Natasha looking especially wary.

“Um what the hell just happened?”

A body drops from the sky and slams into the car next to them setting off the car alarms and Ian’s surprised screams. That’s the only warning they get before the masked alien army continues to flood the street and head straight towards them.

“Agent Boothby, you and Lewis get out of here immediately!” Natasha orders. Darcy doesn’t waste any time, just grabs up Ian’s hand and they both bolt down the street.

***

“Sorry to say it may be a code green Bruce.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that.”

***

_Darcy_

She hears the echoing roar and accompanied slam; she can feel herself grinning as she looks back. The Hulk grabs two aliens by their heads and slams them into the road while Natasha swings up on the shoulders of one by her legs and breaks its neck before turning to shoot another one.

Her friends are very deadly but still so fucking badass.

***

_Jane_

They’re were people still in the building. Why were their people still in the building? Was SHIELD completely useless or do they not understand what an evacuation means. She’s starting to believe that the world is just made of idiotic people when everyone starts rushing towards the windows.

“What are you all doing? You need to get out of here, now!”

“You’re joking right? That’s Thor out there. He’s waving his hammer around and everything!” A guy says as he takes his phone out to start recording the whole thing.

She hears the sonic boom before it hits and ducks her head down as it comes crashing into the building and shatters the windows, blowing people to the floor. She looks back but knows she has to keep moving. She catches up to Erik and ignores the hurt wails coming from the room.

***

_Thor_

He dives from the crumbling roof and collides with Malekith, sending them and several cars sprawling down sandy hills. The sky goes from cloudy gray to the soupy green texture of the alien planet. He blindly reaches for a grip that is not their and feels himself fall off a sharp cliff. He spins around and sees the sandy dunes at the bottom before he falls through another portal.

The rocky ground and thick dark air is exchanged for blue sky and stone ground as they swirl back to earth in seconds. He turns and reaches for Malekith only to be sent spinning and crashing to the far-off sands once again.

He stands as fast as he can and sends his hammer rocketing straight for Malekith and watches in shock as it disappears through a portal before even touching the man.

He takes a deep breath and jumps to tackle the space elf again, sending them rocketing through another portal.

***

_Jane_

_“_ Jane!” Erik cries in panic as he suddenly grabs her and throws them to the ground. Aliens shoot at them from both sides as the army collides together.

She desperately tries to reestablish a connection while rock explodes over their heads.

***

_Thor_

They land in bitter winds and swirling snow only to be stopped by the mighty crash and roar from a scaly beast. One swipe from his huge clawed hand and all three of them are sent careening down the mountain and into another portal.

***

_Darcy_

Ian almost becomes cannon fodder as they turn the corner and try to duck behind a car. Seconds later they get a moment to catch their breath as something straight out of Star Wars comes charging into the streets and eats one of the evil alien henchmen with a sickening crunch. Darcy is knocked off her feet and tries to get up as fast as she can only to be surrounded by approaching bad guys. She madly reaches for her taser and prepares a last defense when two things happen simultaneously.

Ian Boothby lifts a car that had been floating off the ground and it is caught and slammed down by the sudden reappearance of the hulk. He grinds the metal into the ground, pulverizing the alien before leaping off to attack more with another roar. Darcy stands their frozen in surprise for a second before turning to see a slack jawed Ian blinking absently. Darcy huffs out an exhausted laugh and walks towards him.

“As far as first field missions go, you’re getting a crash course here buddy.” She says patting him on the back and helping him when his knees weaken and he almost falls to the ground

“Yeah that’s the adrenaline crashing.”

She blinks again and suddenly she’s holding a shocked Ian next to Jane and Erik.

“Darcy.” Jane lets out a relived breath.

“Jane!” Darcy yells before tackling the small woman into a hug.

“Ian?” Erik seems to ask as the young agent gets knocked to the ground in the chaos.

“Selvig.” Ian greets

A sound like a fighter jet is heard and they all duck as Mjolnir goes rocketing over their heads.

“MEW MEW!”

***

_“How do I get to Greenwich?”_

_“Take this train. Three stops.”_

***

_Jane_

They all feel it when the wind picks up, Jane already knows what’s happening even before her and Erik turn around. Malekith uses the power of the aether and starts to rise above the ground in a dark tornado, moving the portals into alignment.

She is not letting this bug-eyed freak destroy the universe.

“Jane! JANE!” Erik yells as Jane does what she does best and runs full tilt into danger. She runs as the darkness spreads and she pushes back the thought that the aether is greeting her like an old friend or a long-lost captive.

Thor comes running out of the underground station and honestly if they live, she wants to hear that story.

***

_“Thor! Were out of time!”_

_“The convergence is at its peak.”_

_“Can those things stop it?”_

_“Not from here.”_

_“We can’t get close enough.”_

_“I can.”_

_***_

_Jane_

She knows now that she has the worst timing in the world because right as Thor dives into the deadly clouds of the aether all Jane wants to do is draw him back because she knows she can’t live without him.

It’s impossible and terrifying for an immortal Norse god to be the love of your life but that’s where Jane is at.

She wants to be with Thor, for however long or short her life is.

***

_Thor_

He fights through the swirling red matter; it stings his eyes and skin but he keeps fighting because he cannot let the universe die. His people, his family, the warriors three cannot die. Earth and the Avengers cannot die.

Jane cannot die.

“Malekith!”

The dark elf turns and Thor can see in his eyes that he is consumed with the power swirling around them.

“Darkness returns Asgardian…. have you come to witness the end of your universe?”

“I’ve come to accept your surrender.”

Thor throws the spear like machine and hears the faint beep as Malekith catches it. Thor fights back his smile and waits.

The machine portals away taking Malekith’s arm with it, another throw, another blip and his other arm is swiftly torn from his body.

“You think you can stop this? The Aether cannot be destroyed!” Malekith shouts.

“But you can.”

Thor reaches out and can already feel Mjolnir returning to him, he starts to run at the dark elf from legend and lets out a mighty yell when he feels Mjolnir return to his grip right as the god delivers the final strike.

The world explodes as Malekith and Thor are pushed back.

Thor can feel his body carving its way into the crumbling earth and welcomes the darkness of rest like an old friend.

***

_Jane_

At this point it’s not even a question Jane will always come running to save Thor because they both know he would do the same for her. She doesn’t even thing about it, Jane grabs Thor and holds on tight as the ship comes down on both of them.

***

_Darcy_

“JANE NO!” Darcy screams at the top of her lungs when Ian holds her back. She can feel the tears already coming as she waits for her best friend to be crushed by an alien space ship.

_This is my fault. What did I do differently? I messed with too much oh god oh god-_

Those thoughts are cut off as the ship suddenly disappears into a portal.

“Everybody okay?” Erik calls and Darcy turns to see the man smiling and holding the device, looking like him saving them is an everyday occurrence. Darcy takes a huge breath if relief and almost falls to her knees with how dizzy she is.

“Yeah, that’s the adrenaline crashing.” Ian says and Darcy laughs as he repeats the words, she said to him earlier.

Adrenaline. What a bitch.

***

It’s only a few hours later, after Bruce has gone back to being Bruce and Agent Boothby has officially been taken back for debrief that Darcy’s cellphone rings. She jumps from where she and Bruce had been mutually leaning on each other and picks it up. She shakes off the grogginess when she sees who’s calling.

“Pepper!”

“Darcy thank god!”

“You guys are okay?”

She hears Pepper’s tired and borderline hysterical laughter.

“Yes, you wouldn’t even believe what just happened.”

Darcy looks around at the smoking ruins of the courtyard, hears the far-off sirens and silence of the empty city. She can feel herself smirk as she answers.

“Try me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thor Dark World is over! Yes, I didn't kill Loki and I don't plan on really seeing him again until Rangnarok rolls around. Unless people would be interested in a Asgard and him in a one shot? If I write a redemption one shot it will include Loki/Sif bc I recently ship it with her appearance in Dark World. So let me know if you want that added into the series.
> 
> Next chapter we wrap up Iron Man 3 which means we only have two chapters before the Winter Solider arc starts so get excited guys!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it and are excited for more!


	6. Burn in My Bloodstream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MY GOD! IT'S DONE! I hated writing this chapter, I hated how long it took, I hated how blocked I got on it, I blame the fact that I had to wrap up the Iron Man 3 movie so their wasn't any room for Darcy in this chapter. 
> 
> If it helps this chapter is 11,000 words.
> 
> I'm sorry it took so long and I just want to reassure everyone that no matter how long it takes I will never abandon this fic.
> 
> On another note I screwed up the timeframe in this story, in the first chapter I said it was early April and then bc Iron Man 3 happens in December I mentioned later on it was Christmas….   
> So I’m going to fix that but to clear it up  
> This story takes place December 2012 
> 
> Like I said I'm wrapping up Iron Man 3 in this chapter and except for a few loose ends I have to tie up here and there I should be able to launch into Winter Soldier pretty quickly.
> 
> So enjoy the end of Iron Man 3 and get ready for CA:Winter Soldier! 
> 
> Also F*ck Joss Whedon

_“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller_

_Tony_

He really wishes he took Steve up on that inhouse backup when he finds himself suddenly on the ground with his hands handcuffed behind his back. He also wishes he looked closer at that woman when he picked up her license outside, she had looked suspicious even without the face scar.

Luckily it seems that whoever this woman is she has to keep up her cover more than he does; he manages to make eye contact with Mrs. Davis and gestures with his head for her to hide the files. Turns out he’s more trustworthy than handcuff girl because Mrs. Davis slides the file on the floor and under a table while the “federal agent’s” back is turned. He looks back to the woman just in time to see her hand glowing and he knows instantly things are about to go from bad to much worse.

She shoves her hand in the civilian’s face and Tony almost gags as the sound of sizzling skin fills the bar.

“Hey Cap, crazies are about to come to town, pretty sure a henchman should be coming in around the corner.” Tony whispers and hopes the comm picks it up. He waits and watches as the woman pushes her burning fist through the man’s gut before stealing his gun while people run screaming around them.

“Yeah, found him. Pretty sure it’s one of the guys from the California explosion.” Steve answers back and Tony doesn’t know whether to sigh in relief or groan in frustration. He lands on a sigh as he starts to get himself up.

“Well, no rest for the wicked.”

He stands and starts running, managing to get to the front door before attracting the woman’s attention again.

“Coming towards you Cap.” He says then turns around to taunt her. “Hey, hot wings? You wanna party? Come on, you and me, let’s go!”

He starts running and starts to turn right before hearing the pounding steps of a super soldier in a super run and just keeps running straight. He gets to the other side of the street and turns just in time to see Steve Rogers full body slam a man into a car. The man groans and looks up just to have Steve punch him in the face and get hit in the back of the head with a snowball. All three of them look over to see Harley ducking behind a telephone pole and Tony groans before taking a few cautious steps closer.

“Harley! Come on!” Tony calls as he looks between the kid and the woman marching her way over to him. Harley looks over at the woman just to see one of the townies cock a shotgun at her. Harley moves when she turns around to disarm the man. He meets Tony and the two of them run across the street and hide behind a car.

“You still got any of your tools on you? Because I need to get out of these cuffs like yesterday.” Tony says and turns around to give Harley his hands when the boy starts rummaging in his pockets. Tony tries to look over the car and hope Cap can take two on one for a few minutes.

***

_Steve_

The one thing Steve could say about Extremis is it comes with a quick recovery time. The guy he body slammed only needs a minute before he’s cracking his neck and gripping Steve in a hold that takes some actual force to loosen. The man starts pushing him across the street and Steve has to concentrate on moving his feet backwards so he doesn’t fall. He trips over the sidewalk’s edge and sees Tony behind a car before the goon literally picks him up and throws him through a store window. For a second Steve is transported back to the 1940’s, when he ran for the first time without becoming winded, where his body was so tall and strong, he didn’t know how to control it and managed to run right into the storefront of a bridal shop.

He hears the click of a shotgun as it reloads and manages to get up and run before diving behind the counter. He closes his eyes in relief until someone grips his shoulder. He grabs the hand and starts squeezing, intending to break bones.

“Steve! Stop! Fuck! It’s me!”

He looks up into Tony’s face and let’s go of his wrist before he crushes every bone in the man’s left hand.

“Where did you come from?” Steve whispers frantically. Tony massages his wrist while gesturing with his head to the back room.

“Back door. Harley got the handcuffs off me then I told him to make like roadrunner and vamoose.”

Steve nods and then starts to slowly crane his body over the counter to see where the woman and man had gone because no noise is usually a very bad sign.

“You see anything?” Tony whispers.

Steve shakes his head. “Where did they go?

“Boo.”

The whisper comes from Tony’s right and both men turn to see a glowing face right next to Tony’s. Tony moves out of the way just in time for Steve to throw a punch straight in her face. She recovers instantly and grabs Steve’s fist, pulling him up and spinning him around so he runs into the wall face first with his hand behind his back. She manages to drag him away and slam him into the wall once more before she’s gone. Steve turns to see Tony strangling her with a rolled-up towel but the chokehold doesn’t last. The woman has Tony up in the air and slammed down on the counter before Steve comes in and for the second time that night body slams someone away.

She hits the wall causing plaster to crumble off into a person shaped crater in the wall; he knows they only have a few seconds. He looks to Tony who is looking towards the kitchen with an almost smile on his face.

Steve is going to assume Tony has a plan.

The genius turns to him, already moving towards the kitchen.

“Go out the back door.”

Steve pauses for a second, a second they don’t have and waits for Tony to explain more but he doesn’t.

“What?”

“There’s still another one out there waiting to ambush us, I got the human firecracker you get him so we can get the hell out of this place.” Tony explains as he pushes something into the microwave and ducks behind the food window. They both hear more plaster fall to the ground and know that the Extremis woman has woken back up. Tony looks over his shoulder and gestures for Steve to move; having no other plan Steve nods and runs out the door.

***

_Tony_

Tony waits to move until Steve is out of the restaurant, he doesn’t need to be a genius to know the second he stands up he’s going to get ambushed. He gets a better grip on the thin plastic rope he had found near a half-opened box and counts to three before slowly standing up.

Glowing red eyes and a psychotic smile are what greet him and he manages to react quick enough to grab her by the collar and slam her head to the counter. He pulls the rope over her throat, if she were a normal person she would have started gasping for breath and either die or pass out. Instead, she just burns right through it and punches Tony in the shoulder, sending him sliding to the floor and right into the containers he was hoping he’d fall into. He grabs one and rolls it across the floor. Watching as the liquid covers every available space, he then throws the embers from the ropes into the oily substance.

The entire shop brightens up instantly with the orange roaring flames, he moves quickly, starts the microwave and hits the lever before calling her in.

“You walked right into this one, I’ve dated hotter chicks then you.”

“That’s all you got? A cheap trick and a cheesy one liner?”

“Sweetheart, that could be the name of my autobiography.”

He didn’t waste time after that, just ran out the door and dove behind his metal shield until he felt and heard the diner explode, taking Miss Susie Sunshine with it.

***

_Steve_

Steve more hears then sees the little diner explode, to busy following the henchman as he skulks around the small town, probably waiting for the fight to come to him.

Well, Steve isn’t one to say no to a fight.

He waits until the man becomes distracted by Tony, who is walking away from his burnt wreckage. Steve sneaks up behind the man and reaches out to catch his hand right before he has a chance to lay a superpowered finger on the water tower. He doesn’t waste any time, just pulls the right hand back tightly against the guys back and wraps his other arm around the man in a chokehold. The man starts sputtering instantly and Steve can feel it when he starts to heat up.

His skin is sizzling and the smell of burning flesh starts to rise in the air but Steve holds on. He grits his teeth and chokes back a scream as his arms are shoved into what feels like a roaring fire. The man is turning red, and it’s starting to be from lack of oxygen instead of Extremis.

Even though his body is screaming for Steve to let go of his grip he tightens his hold, bringing a fresh wave of agony to his already scorched skin.

The man finally goes limp and the heat disappears.

It takes Steve a second to release his grip and move his arms, the man drops to the ground. Unconscious or dead, he’s not sure at the moment because he’s too preoccupied with what looks and feels like a third-degree burn. It ate through his clothes and all he can see is red raw skin on both his hands and wrists.

“Holy Shit Steve.”

Steve looks up to see Tony staring at his arms with his mouth hanging open. He is exhausted and in pain but of all things finds himself chuckling.

“You destroyed a whole building and I saved a water tower. Think I win this one.”

Tony stares at him as if he’s insane before rolling his eyes and leaning down to scoop up some snow. Steve hisses when Tony starts to pack the snow on his arms.

“Jesus Christ Rogers, leave the flammable plans to me. You’re lucky we have a first aid kit and you heal faster than the average bear.” Tony quips and Steve really wants to ask what that phrase is a reference to but decides to just let Tony lead him to the curb. He takes a seat while still balancing the snow on his arms.

“What now?”

Tony and Steve both look to see Harley standing there looking at both of them expectantly.

Tony lets out a frustrated breath and Steve decides to let him handle this one.

***

_Tony_

Tony sighs again in frustration as he hears the hurried footsteps of Harley following after him.

“You’re welcome by the way.”

“For what? Did I miss something?”

“Me saving your life.”

“Yeah okay kid, you came in hot with your lockpicking and threw a snowball at a henchman. I wouldn’t be putting on the superhero cape just yet.” Tony quips as he pulls out the files from underneath his jacket. He stops when he looks up and realizes it’s going to be a good 10-minute walk to get to the car that Steve stashed. Tony lets out an irritated sigh and turns around to see Harley waiting right behind him.

“Look kid, I’m going to need you babysit the human torch over there while I get the car. Think you can do that?” Tony doesn’t wait for an answer before he starts walking again.

“That’s it?!” Harley shouts indignantly and Tony can feel a headache coming on from dealing with this kid. He stops again and looks back at him, the one thing he could say about the kid was that he was smart….and stubborn…. pretty resourceful too…...

The wheels were starting to turn in Tony’s head as he remembers another boy that would one day need Tony’s help, he distinctly remembers the many trials and errors Darcy explained the kid went through before meeting the Avengers.

Just like that Tony Stark is pulling out a scrap of paper and a pen, handing Harley a changed future.

“Alright kid here’s the deal.” Tony starts as he stands in front of Harley and finishes scribbling on the paper. “I’m going to give you two names, one of them you can call whenever you want. In fact, I encourage it, this guy’s use to my nonstop talking and he could use a distraction while he’s recovering. Forward any important questions through him.” Tony clicks the pen and folds the piece of paper before meeting Harley’s gaze.

“The second name…” Tony pauses as he searches for a way to explain before deciding to go as vague as he possibly can.

“Some things are going to happen, important stuff. Stuff that won’t happen until later and this person that I’m giving you is going to need help when that time comes. I figure you’re the guy that could help him until I can get there.”

Tony then tries to hand the piece of paper to the boy but he just stares at it before giving Tony a suspicious look.

“What’s the catch?”

 _Kid isn’t easily distracted either._ Tony notes to himself.

“You have to wait until I tell you it’s the right time, if you try to find this guy before I tell you, you’re going to end up in a heap of trouble and probably arrested or something? I don’t know, just don’t be a stalker until I say so and I’m talking years here.”

“I got it.” Harley interrupts and finally takes the paper out of Tony’s hands but still stares at the man.

“So I just wait?” Harley seems genuinely curious now and Tony feels himself smiling.

“Yeah, grow up and keep inventing stuff, call that number and ask as many questions as you want. Bottom line? Use your brain. Then when I tell you it’s time, you find the guy. Think you can handle it?” Tony jokingly challenges and Harley meets him with a grin of his own.

“We’ll find out.”

Tony nods and checks his watch again before looking down the road at his long walk back to the car.

“Alright, you’ve got a job now how about we start this by you go waiting with the wilting veteran over there while I got get the car?” Tony asks and is rewarded with Harley nodding and turning around to walk towards Steve. Tony breaths out a breath of relief and then shoots a silent plea into the universe that he didn’t just fuck something up.

***

_Harley_

It takes all of two seconds for Harley to resist seeing what Tony Stark wrote on the paper, if he was actually serious about what he said. Harley looks down and unfolds the ripped piece of paper to find two names and a phone number. One he recognizes from the news; Happy Hogan had just been in a bad accident and was still recovering in the hospital. The number below it definitely would be used to ask the man a plethora of questions. Harley grins as he tries to memorize the number before looking at the other name. He didn’t recognize it and this name didn’t come with a phone number, just a location.

Peter Parker

Queens, NY

Harley tries to puzzle out the name for a second before he shrugs it off and decides to just wait like Tony Stark said. He jogs the last few steps to sit beside Captain American and stuffs the piece of paper in his pocket, his mind already off the mysterious name and on potato gun upgrades.

After all, that name wouldn’t be relevant for a few years.

***

_“Tell Rhodes to find this lunatic now!”_

_***_

_Rhodey_

Rhodes was not expecting his phone to start ringing right when he had supposed terrorists at gun point. He doesn’t know why he picks up the phone, other than a feeling in his gut telling him he has to.

“Hello?”

“Hey Platypus, how’s your day going?”

Rhodes smiles, because how could he expect anything else from a Tony Stark disappearance.

“Eh, you know, 9 to 5, little knock-and-talk, making friends in Pakistan.” Rhodey answers, quickly checking over his shoulder to make sure no one in the room has moved. Thankfully it seems these people know what to do when a gun is pointed at them and all stay where they are, eyes trained on his gauntlet.

“Right, that’s why I called, two things. Number one, your password? War Machine Roxxs? With two x’s? Love it. It’s a goddamn masterpiece.” Tony practically giggles as he says it and Rhodes lets out a tired groan strictly reserved for the antics of Anthony Stark.

“Two, the guy you’re looking for? He’s not there.”

Rhodey feels his whole body straighten as his head jerks up in surprise.

“What?”

“Yeah, got a lot to catch you up on and a limited amount of time so here’s the deal…”

***

_Nicholas_

He is on a forced break mandated by his mother when his monitors start going crazy. He almost spills his entire mug of coffee on his way across the room.

“What’s going on?” Maggie asks from behind him and Nick ignores his sister in favor of the files, streams of code and videos popping up on his computer.

“Is it bad? What is all this?” Maggie asks again and Nick shakes his head because honestly, he’s not sure. Suddenly, all the screens are frozen and Nick feels the dread of tracing and stopping a computer virus, when of all things a chat window pops up.

**Iron_Man is typing….**

…. What?

**Iron_Man: Why is SHIELD in my servers?**

It’s Tony!” Maggie calls over to their mother with this joy and hope in her voice that makes Nick practically green with envy. Nick tries to ignore the chat and look over the information he can see but he’s only getting half the story.

Reluctantly he types back.

**AvengersTower: This is a secure and trustworthy source, what is all this information?**

He waits and Tony Stark responds a second later.

**Iron_Man: Yeah, trustworthy isn’t a word I associate with SHIELD. I’m gonna need more or I’m booting you out**

Nick panics for a second but is distracted by Maggie poking his side. He turns around and for the first time since he walked through the elevator doors, she doesn’t look mad. Of all things, she’s giving him a look of sympathy.

“Just tell him who you are, he’ll give you access.”

Nick can only look at her in disbelief, having a hard time believing that Tony Stark would give him access just because they share a little DNA. But he hasn’t seen his baby sister in months and the trust he sees in her face is a look he’s missed. He lets out a tired sigh and gives in, his dignity left the building when his mother threatened to ground him earlier. He turns back to the keyboard and tries to make the message as formal and business like as possible.

**AvengersTower: My name is Nicholas Lewis, I am one of the top tech agents on SHIELD, you can trust me with this information.**

**Iron_Man is typing….**

**Iron_Man: Nick Lewis as in Darcy’s asshole older brother?**

Nick sighs.

**AvengersTower: Yes, I’m the asshole older brother.**

Seconds later the screens unfreeze and code starts to pour in. Nick steps back in surprise and looks back to the chat to see Tony left a parting message.

**Iron_Man: Good enough for me, get this all down and make it public as soon as possible.**

**Good Luck Agent Asshole!**

Nick finds himself chuckling under his breath and decides to contemplate Tony Stark being a maybe decent guy later. Right now, it looks like someone decided to play God with science and Nick loves taking those guys down.

***

_Pepper_

Pepper lets out a frustrated sigh and braces her hands on the edge of the kitchen sink as she listens to the annoying squabbling of Sharon and Clint from her com. She opens her mouth to try to get a word in but after her fourth failed attempt she reverts to basic tactics. She takes out her comm and gives it a quick look over to make sure it’s not too breakable, before banging it against the kitchen counter. She waits a minute and checks for any broken pieces before slipping the comm back in her ear and blissful silence greets her.

“Can I speak now?” Pepper says with all the fake innocence she can muster in the moment. It earns her a ruthful chuckle and a mutter from the two.

“Congrats, you made two highly trained special agents jump in surprise.” Clint says sarcastically.

Pepper rolls her eyes even though no one could see her.

“Honestly, after having to wrangle Tony for all these years that in itself seems like an easy task.”

“You should have been around him when we were growing up, a lot of sleepovers were crashed by the drunk cousin.” Sharon mummers, somehow still sounding fond though the picture Pepper is painting in her head consists, primarily, of teenage embarrassment.

Pepper hears movement from the bedroom and looks behind her but the door doesn’t open and Maya stays tucked inside. Pepper turns back around and sighs as her head goes through the moral/emotional conundrum of Maya. She doesn’t want this woman to die, but the fact that she is going to be kidnapped soon because of Maya doesn’t really endear the woman to her.

“How much longer do I have to play nice before I get kidnapped and potentially used as a science experiment?” Silence greets her once again.

“Pepper you know we aren’t going to let that happen.” Clint finally says in what has to be his soothing fatherly tone. She trusts Clint, the secret agent hadn’t been able to escape her affections and she considers him a friend. A friend that has her back when she feels like she’s walking down death row.

“I know.” Pepper answers him and tries to take a steadying breath. “All this is just harder than I thought. “

“Don’t worry, whoever the space magician is, when I meet him, I’m going to punch him in the throat for making us go through this crap.” Clint gruffly says and it causes Pepper to let out a tired and bit manic laugh.

“I think you’ll have to get in line.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Pepper laughs again before taking another steadying breath and finally faces the bedroom door. She composes herself and puts all her media training to work as she puts on the grieving, concerned widow façade, before joining Maya in the bedroom. She opens the door to see Maya tiredly leaning against the headboard, though she does lift her head and give Pepper a soft smile as she walks over and sits at the end of the bed. Then Pepper just waits, knowing eventually Maya will start talking to plead her case.

And she does.

“Fun fact, before he built rockets for the Nazi’s, the idealistic Wernher Von Braun dreamed of space travel.” Maya looks off, lost in thought and Pepper slides a bit closer to her.

“He stargazed.” Maya chuckles and looks back at Pepper.

“ _Is she trying to plead a case for a Nazi?”_ Sharon asks incredulous only to be answered by Clint’s snort.

“ _Just give her time, I bet you five bucks it’s only going to get worse.”_

“See, we all begin wide eyed. Pure science.” Maya goes on

“ _What is it with science people and treating all science as if it were defenseless baby animals?”_ Clint seems both fed up and curious by the sound of his tone. But Pepper ignores the voices in her ear as she looks at Maya’s face, her eyes are wet and she looks scared. Pepper sighs and reaches out, squeezing Maya’s arm comfortingly.

“You can’t be too hard on yourself Maya.”

 _“Yes, she can.”_ Both agents’ mummer from the earpiece.

“You gave your research- “Pepper starts but Maya sits up, slipping out of Pepper’s hold.

“To a think tank that was built on military contracts.” Maya nearly shouted. Underneath the calm persona Pepper does feel a kindling of kinship with this woman. She watches as Maya goes through a mental battle that Pepper herself has had to fight.

“That’s exactly what we use to do.” Pepper tries to reassure the woman. She watches as Maya slowly looks more and more guilty by the minute.

“Don’t judge yourself.” Pepper says and blocks out Clint’s scoff.

Maya just stares at her with her big wet, far too innocent to be honest bambi eyes.

“Thank you Pepper, I really appreciate that.”

Then someone knocks on the door and Pepper knows it’s time. She tries to give Maya one last smile as she slowly heads to the door. She takes deep breaths to ward off the coming dread.

“ _Pepper.”_ Clint says suddenly and loudly, making Pepper jump in surprise but she stops and leans against a coffee table for support as she listens to the agent.

 _“Pepper I swear to you right now that you will be fine, I will make sure you come out of this okay? I swear on my life.”_ Clint says in an even tone and Pepper grasps onto it, if she can’t put her faith in a highly trained agent then she never would have been able to put her faith in Tony. With that thought in mind she takes one more deep breath before taking out her earpiece and flinging it in a corner of the room so it will stay hidden, just like Sharon instructed her to do.

Rapid knocking is heard again, as well as a voice calling room service.

Pepper reaches out and opens the door.

***

_Clint_

“Maya RUN!”

Clint takes a steadying breath as his hands scrunch into tight fists, he’s fighting his instincts that are screaming at him to go in there and get Pepper out of there.

Clint considers himself a pretty closed off person, not really letting anyone in. Heck, he didn’t really let Natasha all the way in until recently. Yet somehow in the middle of all this future nonsense Darcy and Pepper had both fought their way passed his walls and made a place for themselves in the small group of loved ones that Clint has.

Maya must have entered the room because the discarded com picks up her and Killian’s conversation, the woman’s voice just makes Clint angrier. He grits his teeth and actually bangs his fist on the consul before Sharon reaches over and steadies his hand. He looks at the agent to see her face locked in stony concentration as she used her spare hand to access the hotel’s security footage and the bugs that Pepper placed in the room.

The image they see once the screens turn on is one that makes both of their blood boil. They watch, frozen in their chairs as Killian and Maya seem to have a heated but still calm conversation. All while Killian holds Pepper in a chokehold, pointedly ignoring the woman’s struggling limbs. It takes a few minutes but eventually they leave, dragging Pepper unwillingly with them. Clint turns on the bug Pepper had tried to get on Maya and crosses his fingers.

When it starts to beep and the little dot followed Maya’s path Clint let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding.

“Call Rogers and Stark, tell them to get their asses here so we can end this shit.” Clint says as he closed his eyes, he could feel a headache coming on and its name was Killian.

***

_Tony_

He pounds his fist into the car roof until it hurts too much but he still feels like screaming. He remembers Darcy telling him about this and he swore he would do anything to make sure Pepper and him didn’t have to live through these events. Now because a stupid time wizard meddled, he was at the side of the road, still miles away and Pepper had just been kidnapped.

He was trying to do the relaxation breath technique that Sandy had begged him on more than one occasion to try when a firm hand gripped his shoulder.

“Tony.” Steve said with a solid voice full of seriousness that Tony would bet he learned in the army. He manages to wrangle in his rage just enough to not throw off the good Captain’s arm.

“You should put your com back in, Clint and Sharon have got a tracker on Maya and Pepper. War Machine confirmed that he had a team heading to the decoy location and he’s heading to the real location now.” Steve slowly explains and Tony lets him, lets his words drown out the voice screaming in his head that he’s a failure and he’s going to get them all killed. Instead he chooses to listen to Steve and believe that Rhodey and Clint and Sharon can help them.

He’s not on his own anymore.

He finally nods and steps away from the car to pick up the com he threw on the ground once he got the news about Pepper.

“Sorry about the standby everybody I’m back.” He tries to quip out but from Steve’s face and the reassuring tone Sharon’s voice takes on he knows he’s not fooling anybody.

“It’s okay Tony, we’ve got this handled but you both need to get moving.” Sharon tells him and Tony for once listens to his little cousin. He turns to Steve and gives the man a nod of thanks, Steve’s face is just as serious and solemn as he nods back. If Steve Rogers knows one thing it’s how to read the mood of the situation and Tony is starting to become very thankful for that.

They step into the car and are speeding back down the road in seconds.

***

_Rhodey_

He was approaching US waters when his phone started to ring again, at least this time it was an official number and not his best friend hacking in.

“Cornel Rhodes here.”

“You were right Cornel, the information that you sent our way says you should be heading to Malibu Florida.”

Rhodey takes a second and lets the annoyed sigh loudly fill the microphones in the helmet.

“It had to be Florida; I will update you as I get closer. Over and out.”

“Copy.” The operative said before ending the call. Just as Rhodey was putting some real speed on his thrusters another call starts to come through.

“What the…” Rhodey wonders as the staticky connection clears up and of all things a kid’s voice is heard.

“Is this War Machine?”

Rhodey takes a second to wonder how this has become his life.

“How is a child on my com right now? This isn’t like running across a radio frequency with a walkie talkie.”

“Tony Stark and Captain Rogers sent me. They said you could need some help.” The kids says and Rhodey doesn’t know whether to be impressed that Tony had a positive interaction with a child or insulted that they forked over said child to him.

“Look kid, I don’t have the full story of what’s going on but I know how serious this situation is-“ the god damn child cut him off.

“So do I! I watched two people light up like volcanoes and try to destroy my town!”

That was…news to Rhodey, and he doesn’t have time to debate because he can see the compound coming up quick.

“Alright kid you wanna help? You know anything about disabling security cameras?” Rhodey asks hoping Tony stumbled on another tech genius.

“Not my specialty but I’m on a video chat Tony gave me with a secret agent who can hack.” The kid responds and Rhodey is wondering how much happened when he was flying to Pakistan.

“Alright well you know the location I’m heading to I’m gonna need someone to disable security and take control of all tech in the house.”

“Roger that!” the kid said really too enthusiastically for the situation but it still made Rhodey smile.

Time to go to work.

*

Without tech it turns out henchmen are pretty damn stupid; it was almost child’s play creeping up to the mansion once Harley told him the security cameras were down. He flies over the house and then it’s just a divebomb downwards and the first two guards are stunned and on the ground before they have a chance to form their faces of surprise. He flies through the estate and drops tear gas on a few more guards by the fountain before walking right through the front door.

“Alright Harley, I’m giving you control of the suit, when I need it you gotta fly it to me.” Rhodey whispers into the coms before detaching himself from the armor except for one gauntlet that he kept raised and in front of him. He slinks through the front walkway and comes into a room that looks like a crack den.

“Why is it so hot in here? I told you to put it at 68.” A clearly hungover girl mutters and Rhodey turns to see another henchman rummaging through a trashed table. Rhodey sneaks over to the guy slowly, eyeing the girl to be quiet and doesn’t let the guy finish his sentence before he’s gripping the guy’s head with the gauntlet and sending a jolt through his system to knock him cold out. He looks up at the girl who just continues to blink at him and he sighs because he doesn’t have time to help her.

“Drink some water and call your parents.” He throws over his shoulder as he starts to head up the stairs.

***

_Tony_

You can tell that Steve learned to drive off road during the war time, he speeds and swerves in and out of traffic and Tony is honestly worried they are going to get pulled over at some point. Steve changes lanes sharply and a chorus of car horns follow in their wake, Tony actually grins as Steve just rolls his eyes. He’s about to make a quip about not living up to his boy scout history when his phone finally made the pinging noise he had been waiting for since he had gotten a hold of Rhodey. He grabs his phone so fast he almost drops it a few times before getting a good grip on it. He reads the alert that warns him a world wide feed is being broadcasted and he quickly clicks on the link. The video image that pops up is just about the most beautiful thing he has laid his eyes upon, Rhodes in the War Machine suit, holding a man that looks like a washed-up guru at gauntlet point.

“Wave hello to the millions of people watching.” Rhodey says in his deep army voice that Tony usually makes fun of him for having but it does get the job done as the man lets out a pathetic squeaking sound before he starts blubbering.

“Wh-where do I b-begin?”

“How about where the real Mandarin is.”

“He-he’s here, but he’s not here.”

“Elaborate.”

“It’s complicated!”

Rhodes fires up the gauntlet

“Uncomplicate it.”

“Okay! Alright!” Suddenly a British accent was coming out of the guy. “My name is Trevor, Trevor Slattery and I’m an actor. This is a role; the Mandarin isn’t real they just needed a role to be filled. He needed someone to take credit for some…accidental explosions.”

“Who? Who set this all up?”

“Aldrich Killian.”

With that Tony let out a breath of relief.

“Nice work Platypus.” Tony mummers as he clicks out of the video and leaves Rhodes to the legal stuff.

“Did you all get that?” Tony asks, his hand going to his com.

“Loud and clear, Clint and I are on our way, we’ll send Rhodes the coordinates to the real location. Our girl managed to get the bug on Maya.” Sharon responds from her end. Tony nods even though they can’t see it.

“Alright get ready for a fight, we’re getting Pepper back.” He says in a deadly tone that leaves no room for argument. He looks over at Steve who looks just as determined as he does.

“How fast can you make this car go?”

“How fast did you modify it for?”

Tony smirks as his head gets thrown back into the seat when Steve easily brings the car up to 110.

***

_Sharon_

She could hear Maya and Killian’s raised voices from all over the building, the two geniuses didn’t really get the term laying low apparently.

“I need Tony Stark!”

“Well you don’t have Tony Stark so you better figure it out.”

Sharon smirks because she can clearly hear the panic in Killian’s voice, he was on thin ice and he knew it.

“You can’t inject her it will do nothing!”

“You haven’t grasped the game yet Maya, if I want Tony Stark then I have to break a few people first.”

Sharon finally inches into the room and stays in the shadows, not making a sound. What she sees is a pacing Killian and a hologram of a strapped down Pepper Potts, panicking but not infused with Extremis yet, but apparently the clock was ticking on that as Killian’s hand jiggled with a switch. She sees Maya turn and grab something off the desk and when she realizes what it is Sharon moves.

She takes a flying leap off the walkway, managing to kick Killian in the face and then tuck and roll to the ground. She leaps up right next to a very surprised Maya and smacks the needle out of her hand while pulling the woman in a chokehold. Maya gasps as Killian drags himself up off the floor. He takes one look at the blonde agent and starts to chuckle. Sharon has to refrain from rolling her eyes, what is it with villains laughing once they think they outsmarted you?

“This? This is the rescue party? One bodyguard?” Killian asks.

“Special agent, actually.” Sharon stiffly says back and Killian nods. He continues his pacing but looks like the cat that ate the canary.

“So, what is your plan here Agent? I mean you aren’t even in the correct location and you’re coming in alone here. What could you possibly expect me to do in this moment?” Killian put his hands out as if inviting her to contradict him but a few seconds later she watches the orange glow take over his veins and eyes. Sharon takes joy in the small smile that creeps over her face.

“You don’t know yet do you?” She asks, tightening her hold on the squirming woman and watches as Killian raises a questioning eyebrow.

“You didn’t see the news? The broadcast was very enlightening this afternoon.”

Killian watches her but his eyes flick to Maya’s computer station and Sharon actually nods her head and moves both her and Maya out of the way.

“Go ahead. I won’t stop you.”

Killian eyes her but slowly makes his way over to the consul, both him and Sharon keep their eyes locked on each other. Then Sharon watches, almost gleefully as the news screens start popping up one by one and all with variations of the same headline.

_PHONY TERRROIST – ALDRITCH KILLIAN TERROISM – ALDRITCH KILLIAN TRUE MANDARIAN_

All the newscasters shouting for blood and Killian stood their stock still.

“It seems your officially on the run.” Sharon says and Killian’s gaze whipped to her while Sharon looks behind him at one of the screens.

“And it seems like that’s another plan ruined.” Sharon says and gestures as much as she can to the screen showcasing Rhodes arresting the Mandarin with Air Force One being safely grounded.

“One more thing.” She waits until Killian meets her gaze and she finally smiles. “I’m just part one.”

SHIELD agents burst into the room with their guns drawn but Killian is ready, charging through a wall of agents, melting faces and guns as he goes. Sharon shoves Maya into the arms of a free agent and starts to run after Killian.

He loses her through the twisting hallways and she is instantly slowed down by a guard pointing a gun in her face. She trips him up, grabs him by the collar and slams the man into the wall. She keeps running with her own gun drawn.

“This is Agent Carter, who do I have?” She asks into her coms.

“Still outside monitoring and I got everyone on.” Clint says from his position outside the factory on the roof.

“Good, when you see Killian let him run.”

“…. could you repeat that?

“Let him feel like he’s getting away we’ll get the drop on him again.

She turns a corner and immediately plants her feet to roundhouse kick another goon in the face. She ignores Clint calling her a killjoy and runs down the next hallway.

***

_Pepper_

Pepper tried to calm down her breathing but it was hard to keep a clear head when you’ve been strapped down like this for hours and you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. So far it had just been her and two heavily armed men guarding her, she literally watched the sun set through the ship’s grates, casting shadows on the wall as she waited for either Tony or Killian to show up. Night had fallen and her whole body was overwhelmed with exhaustion just from all the stress she was enduring in the past few hours. Her head was actually starting to bob off to sleep when suddenly someone was snapping fingers in front of her face. Her head shoots up to see the smiling face of Aldrich Killian.

“Hi.”

She notices the growing bruise on his face

“I see you’ve met Sharon.” She nods to the injury and he rubs his hand on it.

“Yes, you do seem to attract the stubborn type Ms. Potts, they don’t know when to give up.”

“You think Tony’s going to give in and help you?” Pepper shakes her head. “He won’t.” Of all things Killian responds by chuckling and walking over to her. His hand rests on her shoulder and she can feel her skin crawling at being this close to this crazy scum.

“Having you here is not just to motivate Tony Stark. It’s um…” He trails off and Pepper’s eyes are flying all over his face, she hasn’t spent years smoozing billionaires and geniuses to not know how to read a face and she could see even if Killan put on this smug bastard routine he was sweating.

He was panicking.

“Well it’s actually more embarrassing than that. You’re here as my um...”

Pepper can feel her eyes narrowing into slits because on top of everything, he wants to be misogynistic about her kidnapping?

“Trophy?”

Killian just chuckles again and Pepper really hopes she gets to punch him at least once.

***

_Steve_

He knows the plan and he understand modern technology; but watching as Rhodes and Tony practically flutter around the Iron Patriot suit while spitting techno babble back and forth to each other is making his head slightly spin. Tony finally steps back from the suit and gives it a once over before firmly nodding, Rhodes backs off too and goes to signal to Clint and Sharon to start moving in.

“Okay it’s a pretty last-minute upgrade but it should be able to be remote controlled from where you are kid so just remember to keep her steady and keep your mic on mute. You got that sparky?” Tony says before rapping on the helmet with his knuckles to make sure Harley was paying attention from the monitor in the helmet. It takes a second but the arm of the suit raises and gives them a shaky but jaunty salute.

Rhodes come back to see that and scoffs but Tony just gives it a quick smile and a head nod.

“Alright kid, go be our eyes on the inside, make sure Pepper’s okay.”

The suit then turns from them and seems to almost click it’s heels together as it takes off and even Steve finds himself shaking his head and chuckling despite the tense situation.

“We’re gonna talk about the fact that your involving a child that’s younger than my daughter. He hacked into military airwaves.” Steve is still smiling because he can tell Rhodes is impressed with all of this. Tony doesn’t seem bothered as he just scoffs.

“My goddaughter could easily hack the government and kick Killian’s ass.”

“Don’t give her any ideas.” Rhodes whacks Tony’s shoulder and Steve rolls his eyes as he physically gets in between the two geniuses.

“Come on and focus, Tony get the monitor up.” He knows he sounds and looks like a parent right now but it does get Tony to pull up the video feed on his phone.

Steve will take the small wins.

***

_Pepper_

She hears the familiar sound of thrusters and she can feel her anxiety settling as the Iron Patriot suit suddenly lands right in front of them. The suit opens and just like Pepper expects its empty, no president, no national hostage. Considering that just leaves her for the foreseeable future she keeps her mouth shut and lets Killian stare into the empty suit. Suddenly he lets out a little chuckle, a chuckle so smug that it makes Pepper’s stomach sink in dread.

“Well, you work with what you have.” Is all he says before turning around and giving Pepper that sick smiles again. Pepper tries to take deep breaths but Killian simply walks by her towards one of the computer stations. Her head whips around trying to not let the man out of her sight.

Killian simply picks something up, a tiny metal babble or something and walks back to the suit. She watches quietly as he messes with the helmet and then stands back.

“It’s amazing what you can do with holograms nowadays.” Killian said, sounding so casual. Pepper watches and when the hologram flickers on she closes her eyes in dread.

***

_Rhodey_

“Wait!? What are they doing?”

“Kid?”

“Their moving the suit!”

Rhodey shoots a quick glance at Tony who nods his head and Rhodes starts moving with Steve right behind him and Tony following, still whispering to Harley on his phone.

“Kid quiet down!”

“They’re messing with the circuit board in the helmet- “

The kid cuts off and Rhodes moves up the dock ladder to the main strip of the dock yard. He gets low and checks once behind him, jerks his head forward and had Steve moving instantly forward. Tony follows a few seconds later and Rhodey takes a steadying breath, adjusting the grip on his gun.

“I see you, stay low.” Cap says and Rhodey opens his eyes to look up where Cap is staring and watches as Sharon and Clint silently move around the rigging towards the building roof.

“Calm down soldier boy, you’re not the only one with training.” Clint quips and Rhodes finds himself smiling and nudging Steve’s shoulder. Steve just rolls his eyes before freezing at Tony’s next sentence.

“What is that?”

Rhodes looks up and can practically feel the growl under his deep sigh, turns out Killian is a dramatic little fuck like all other super villains.

***

_Clint_

Clint leans against one of the metal beams and internally asks himself why anything can’t ever be straight forward and easy.

Because right now he’s staring at a stringed up Iron Patriot suit, hundreds of feet off the ground in god damn searchlights with the president apparently inside the suit. Which makes no sense because last time he checked the President’s flight and supposed kidnapping had been grounded and cancelled.

“What the fuck is going on?” He finally asks.

“Gonna need you to use your elf eyes Legolas, because as far as I know Rhodes made sure the president stayed on the ground.” Tony quips into the com and Clint grumbles but does adjust his stance to get a good look at the grand king kong-style sacrifice. He knows it’s a hologram, and a pretty damn good one from the look of it, not even a flicker or a glitch appear on the “president’s” face.

“Hologram.”

“God fucking dammit” Rhodes responds. He hears the rest of the mutterings to not mess with a man’s suit but ignores it in favor of listening to Cap.

“I’m guessing it’s believable enough for Killian to get away?”

Clint heard Sharon’s annoyed huff and knew she was just as irritated about this as Rhodes seemed to be.

“I’d say a president getting assassinated on live television could rouse up the right amount of confusion for him to disappear.”

“Alright then, the priority is still getting Pepper to safety and make sure Killian doesn’t get away. Barton and Carter still on freeing Potts.” Steve orders in his official Captain American voice. Clint finds himself nodding to someone who can’t see it before turning and winding his way towards the factory roof.

***

_Tony_

_"Broadcast will commence shortly, take final positions."_

Tony lets out a ragged breath and swears that after this he will actually join Rhodey on those morning runs he always talks about, because not being able to keep fully in step with him and Cap is super annoying. All three of them run up the staircase as fast as they can while still keeping silent, Tony watches as Rhodes nods at Steve and lets him take the lead, finally falling into step with Tony.

“Is your gun up?” Rhodes asked and Tony throws it up quickly.

“Yep. What do I do?”

“For now? Stay on my six, don’t shoot me in the back and get ready to bring out the big guns.”

Tony nods his head and tries to move his arm and gun everywhere at once as he looks around.

“Six, back, big guns, got it.”

The gunfire starts immediately after that.

Tony turns and tries to squint his eyes against the blinding lights but can’t see the shooter, he still tries to shoot and curses under his breath as he hears the bullets clanging off metal.

“Tony. Move.” Cap practically orders as he grabs his sleeve. Tony turns back and tries one more time to land a shot before ducking down to crouch beside Rhodes.

“You see that? Nailed it.”

Tony ignores Steve’s amused chuckle and Rhodes scoff.

“Yeah, you really killed the glass.”

“You think I was aiming for the bulb? You can’t hit a bulb at this distance.”

Rhodes next few moves were precise, sharp and clean, he sprang up, took aim and fired. The glass shatters and the world darken from the loss of the searchlight as Rhodes crouches back down.

…. Tony is willing to admit that he stands corrected.

***

_Sharon_

_“All personnel, we have hostiles. I repeat, hostiles on east unit 12.”_

Sharon smiles as she drops into the warehouse silently, muffling the sound of the sudden gunfire and emergency announcement. Honestly, right now gunfire is music to her ears, it means one step closer to this clusterfuck being over. She looks up and spots Clint barely visible in the darkness of the factory rafters, she gives him a slight nod and then starts making her way down to the floor where a now panicking Killian is yelling for more guards to go contain the threat.

She slinks slowly down, using the gunshots and clanking of heavy footfall to disguise any creaking of metal she causes. She waits, hanging onto the edges of the walkway right over the computers.

“Got a clear shot of him whenever you’re ready.” Clint whispers into the com, Sharon waits. Killian is losing and he’s losing fast, all she has to do is wait for the moment that he gets so desperate he slips up.

Killian cuts his pacing in front of Pepper and glares at the woman before he’s suddenly jogging up the stairs and grabbing something off the desk, it’s a vial and Sharon takes that as her cue.

Killian starts back down the stairs and Sharon jumps down onto the desk causing the woman monitoring the computers to gasp and for Killian to trip down a stair in surprise. He turns to her and freezes for a second.

“Boo.”

Killian’s gaze hardens and he makes a run for Pepper, Sharon runs after him, she grabs the railing, managing to swing herself over and stick her landing on the ground. She stands right next to Killian but he already has the IV attached to Pepper in his hand, ready to flood her with Extremis.

“Well, what’s next special agent?” Killian taunts before moving his hand to insert the vial.

The scream he lets out when the arrow stabs through his hand is so satisfying, almost as satisfying as the sound of the vial shattering under her foot. Sharon hears Pepper let out a sigh of relief and looks over her shoulder to give the woman a confident smile before standing protectively in front of her.

Killian has staggered back a few steps and yells again as he physically yanks the arrow out of the bleeding hole in his hand. He throws it towards Sharon and it clatters in front of her feet. She doesn’t take her eyes off the man who’s starting to breath heavily and glow a sick orange color.

“I wouldn’t if I were you.” Sharon says as Killian goes to take a step towards them, he stops and glares at her, daring her to go on. She does.

“By the time you manage to take two steps you’ll have three more arrows in you. One of them will be designed to have the same results of a grenade.” Sharon allowed herself her own smug smile. “It’s a prototype Stark and Agent Barton have been working on for a special occasion.”

A yell is heard outside, accompanied by more sounds of gunfire, it makes Killian grit his jaw and Sharon’s smile grows.

“Seems you’ve got a choice here, try to get past me, emphasis on try.” Sharon taunts before gesturing outside. “Or try to save what’s left of whatever plan you once had.”

Sharon waits, eyes never leaving Killian, the noises grew louder and Killian didn’t need the Extremis to show how angry he was getting over his plans falling apart. It took a minute, but Killian chooses, he yells in frustration at Sharon and Pepper before finally turning and running out the door and towards commotion outside.

Sharon turns and instantly starts unlocking Pepper from her restraints.

“Sorry it took so long.” Sharon says to an exhausted Pepper. She releases the last clamp and manages to catch her when she stumbles out. She just holds Pepper for a second and lets her take a few breaths, for the first time in over 24 hours they have some time.

“Gonna go join the party, let us know when Pepper’s out safe.” Clint says instantly accompanied by purposefully noisy footsteps on the roof as Barton runs headfirst towards the chaos.

“Have fun, knock the asshole’s teeth out for me. I’ll get the authorities here soon as I can.” Sharon says before squeezing Pepper in a show of comfort. Pepper looks up at her looking tired and angry.

“Ready to get out of here?”

***

_“Save my spot. Ready?”_

_Tony springs up and then crouches back down._

_“What’d you see?”_

_“Too fast. Nothing.”_

***

_Steve_

“Hey Cap, looks like I finally got a job for you.” Tony says when he once again springs up and Cap takes a deep breath before he stands up and peaks over to see four people, glowing orange and leaping through scaffolding.

 _I probably couldn’t even do that_ Steve thinks, already half resigned and half awed. He takes a steadying breath and grips his shield.

“Think you can stall long enough?” Tony asks and Steve nods.

“Just don’t take forever on a dramatic entrance with the backup.” Steve says before leaving the two snickering men behind and full out sprinting into the open and towards the juiced-up soldiers. They start firing down on him instantly and he gets his shield in front of him just in time to block the hale fire of bullets. He gets halfway up the first set of stairs before the first soldier is on him, he doesn’t even think he just reacts and jams the shield up managing to knock the guy in the head. He moves his shield and makes a grab for the man’s gun, getting a firm grip on it when the man starts to pull it back. Steve looks left and right at the railing and then ducks to avoid a punch before crouching down and jumping up, he slides his shield to his back as his foot lands and pushes off the right railing, he grabs the gun with both hands and as his body turns around, he pulls with everything he has. He feels the weight of the man as his momentum forces him forward, falling onto Steve’s back and the shield. He grips tighter on the gun and pulls while bucking his back.

The guy goes over his shoulders, flying down the stairs and Steve now has a weapon.

He stays crouched down because bullets start raining down on him instantly. He takes aim at the closest target and fires, a weapon clatters to the ground as the shriek of pain cuts through the air. He hears running feet and see one person coming from the top of the stairs and another person coming at him from the bottom. He swings the gun around and shoots the one at the bottom of the stairs in the foot, they fall to the ground. He turns around, swings the gun onto his shoulder and grabs both railings as he jumps up and kicks the other goon right in the face. He jumps up and over the body and kicks it down the stairs to join the other one. Not even a second later he can hear more people running towards him.

“A little help?”

“Got you covered.” Tony says and Steve turns to look to the sky. The bullets momentarily stop as the bright and colorful iron man suits swarm the area. Steve smiles as the roar of repuslors takes over and the suits float in the air, a menacing army of Tony Stark’s own creation.

***

_“Jarvis, target EXTREMIS heat signatures. Disable with extreme prejudice.”_

_“Yes sir.”_

_“What are you waiting for? It’s Christmas. Take them to church.”_

***

_Pepper_

They were at the edge of the factory when the suits light up the sky, Pepper stops and turns around as she watches the machines cut through the air, dragging people down and launching small missiles through the air. It was like the worlds sickest, most dangerous light show. She listens to the screams and can’t help but feel a bit of satisfaction at evil people sustaining injuries.

Sharon stands beside her as the repulsors keep shooting through the air but still no sign of Killian or his “supernova of power” yet. Pepper should be running away, should be following Sharon out and getting the FBI or the police down here but theirs this burning need in her that she can’t name but is suddenly causing her to take a step forward.

One step is all she gets as Sharon is still right beside her and grabbing her arm.

“Pepper you can’t.” 

Pepper turns to Sharon and waits; she can be patient but she can also talk her way out of anything.

“Look, I know what’s happening, I’ve been briefed, Fury has gone over every battle Darcy described in excruciating details. You can’t take Killian down without extremis.”

It’s a point, a very fair and logical point but for once logic isn’t helping Pepper. She turns around and looks back at the fight and is filled with an anger that is too deep and vast to not have been stewing in her for a while now.

“No one should play god. Tony has tripped into it and fallen into it and payed for it and apologized for all of it. Yet he’s still paying for other people playing god!” Pepper yanks her arm out of Sharon’s grip and the other woman lets her. Sharon’s face is neutral but if Pepper has learned anything it’s that Sharon Carter is not one to sit idly by.

“You don’t want to walk away either.” Pepper states. Sharon sighs a loud frustrated sigh.

“Every instinct in me is screaming to go help but that doesn’t matter because I’m not letting an untrained civilian back in there!” Sharon grabs Pepper’s arm again and tugs her to face her. Sharon blinks in surprise at Pepper’s look of satisfaction and just waits, for whatever answer Pepper has figured out.

“I have full access to any and all Iron man suits, I just need to get a hold of Jarvis.”

Pepper could tell that changed things.

“If you can get us both back in there, I can get us all the protection and fire power we could possibly need.”

Sharon is already nodding her head.

“Tony isn’t going to like us being friends at all.”

She hands Pepper a comm.

***

_Tony_

“This is how you’ve been managing your downtime huh?”

“Everybody needs a hobby.”

One suit built like a tank manages to run through several crates and send the smoking remains flying to the ground.

“Heartbreaker, help Red Snapper out will you?”

Two suits blast off several juiced-up henchmen before crashing right into the factory and rigging, causing a huge explosion; flames start to spread and consume everything.

A few suits fly down to where Tony and Rhodes stand.

“Swear to god Tones if you play some cheap shot like the suits are only coded to you.”

“Would I do that to you…. I would you’re right I totally would but you’re more help to me in a suit. This time”

Tony and Rhodey suit up and take off.

***

_Pepper_

“Jarvis?”

“Hello Miss Potts, glad to hear your voice.”

“The feeling is very much mutual. I’m going to need some help, which one of these suits is coded to me?”

***

_Clint_

He had been following the super powered psycho of the week while yet another full-scale way above his pay grade battle was taking place. He follows two steps behind as Killian runs all over, looking for a weak point or a foot hole to jump in but. Everywhere he turns it seems is another Iron Man suit blasting another Extremis to the ground. It doesn’t take too long for Killian to realize he’s not going to win this one and attempts an escape; Clint takes that as his que. He shoots off three arrows in rapid succession, one through. Killian’s shoulder, one tearing open his hip and one at the back of his knee.

Killian yells and turns to see Clint, the agent doesn’t wait around to find out how good flame boys aim is, he just starts running, hearing Killian following close behind him.

“Stark, I’m bringing the party to you.” Clint says as he leaps onto the roof and sprints to the other side where the explosions seem to be the loudest.

“I don’t like that, last time I said that I brought a giant space slug with me.”

“Well, this time it’s just a human flamethrower.” Clint finishes before leaping off the side and propelling down, just missing Killian as the other man threw himself off the building.

***

Everyone hears the angry yells as Killian lands in the middle of the fight.

Sharon and Pepper run faster.

Steve throws two men into the water and uses his shield to knock falling debris into a third’s face.

Tony jumps out of one wrecked suit and runs to another one.

Rhodes knocks two people off a falling crate and cuts the cords of the empty Iron Patriot suit.

Clint continues to follow the crazy.

***

_Tony_

“Can’t run forever Stark!”

Tony turns and looks at Killian on the other side of the walkway. He looks behind to see one of the suits floating close to the edge and takes off in a sprint, Killian runs towards him with his fist raised.

Right before they crash into each other Tony pushes forward and drops to his knees, sliding under Killian and right into the next Iron Man suit.

Punch for punch he meets every one of Killian’s hits, managing bang the psycho’s head against the railing hoping to loosen some teeth just for Sharon. The armor falls apart but Tony just keeps punching back.

“Eject.” Tony orders and his suit blasts him out into the air, he falls into another suit and flies back up to meet Killian only to get a punch to the face.

Doesn’t matter, he’s not giving up.

***

_“You really didn’t deserve her, Tony. It’s a pity. I was so close to having her perfect.”_

_  
“You’re right. I don’t deserve her…. But she was already perfect.”_

***

_Pepper_

“Miss Potts, I’d highly advise against this.”

Normally Pepper listens to Jarvis, when it came to a voice of reason in the chaos of her life, she sees no better person then a super computer to help. But this time, maybe just the first of many times to come, Pepper has to trust herself more than logic.

She turns to Sharon who examines the gauntlet now attached to her wrist and reluctantly puts her gun away in favor of the repulsor.

She turns back just in time to see Tony leap and fall, the suit catches him but starts malfunctioning, he barely makes it to the ground before the suit falls apart. Melting scaffolding and suit parts fall to the ground like fireballs but Pepper has been through this a few times and she knows it’s not over.

Killian gets up and Pepper fires up the gauntlet.

***

“I AM THE MANDARIAN!”

Pepper and Sharon step in front of Tony and simultaneously manage to use their gauntlets and punch Killian across the grounds. Pepper looks over her shoulder to check on Tony and the man just looks at the two women shocked before finally shrugging his shoulders.

“I got nothing.”

Killian charges again and both women snap back to focus, Sharon runs and slides under his legs.

“Cap!” She yells and Steve already has the shield flying into her outstretched hand. Even with the gauntlet it almost rips her off her feet.

Pepper stays standing and fires a blast at Killian knocking him back to bang right into Sharon charging him with Cap’s shield. His head makes the thing almost ring like a bell. He staggers back and tries to clear the fogginess from his gaze.

“Hey Pepper, catch.” Clint says into the comm and Pepper turns as Clint throws the grenade arrow at her. She runs and for once manages a catch flawlessly, she stares at the arrow and then looks back at Killian just to watch Sharon block his next punch with the gauntlet and repeatedly beats his head with the shield.

“Get him to the ground” Pepper says into the comm and Sharon instantly drops and kicks Killian’s feet right out from under him.

Pepper charges towards Killian and Sharon clears the way for Pepper to stick the arrow in the center of Killian’s chest.

Killian yells and both women run clear of the blast zone as Clint hits the kill switch and Aldrich Killian erupts into a fiery inferno.

Everyone is silent as they all stare at the scattered remnants of the Mandarin. Tony finally turns from where he had been shielding Pepper to face her.

“Don’t take this the wrong way because you absolutely saved my ass back their but weren’t you supposed to be escaping?”

All Pepper can manage to do is let out a rough laugh as she holds Tony tight.

***

_Pepper_

She finally gets a hold of a cell phone hours later while getting checked out by a paramedic, while Tony argues with another one that he’s completely fine. She dials Darcy’s number and holds her breath until the line is picked up.

“Pepper!”

“Darcy thank god!”

“You guys are okay?”

Pepper lets out a tired and borderline hysterical laugh.

“Yes, you wouldn’t even believe what just happened.”

Theirs’s a pause before Darcy answers.

“Try me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's done! I still hate that battle scene but it took me almost six months to get here so the rewrites can happen later.
> 
> So I changed a whole lot because I wanted to and also I had to set up a few things here and there to come, a very big part of that being Harley Keener.
> 
> Yes, Tony Stark did just make Peter Parker and Harley Keener future best friends, I'm gonna mess with their ages a little but my plans are to make them only a few years apart or the same age, not sure. For now it's gonna be a while until Harley comes up again, don't worry he will definitely be in the mini intro Spiderman story I've got planned
> 
> Next Chapter WILL take less than six months to post I promise!!!

**Author's Note:**

> So there we have it, we are at the beginning of both Thor: The Dark World and Iron Man 3, expect some changes in Thor and a lot of changes in Iron Man 3 because finally, canon is going fully out the window!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it and are excited for more!


End file.
